Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Getting ready for Christmas!

I can't believe I have not updated since Thanksgiving! My dear friend Kirsten told me today that she would look forward to Christmas pics after the holidays and I realized I better get in gear and get the pre-Christmas stuff on here!

So without further delay, here we go! We decorated the toyroom and the kids' bedrooms/bathrooms also but I didn't get pics of those yet ;)

 My snowman bathroom

 Cassandra made the gingerbread house!
 lights off
 lights on
 my grandma's blue snowmen :)
 my sweet honey climbed the ladder to hang the candy ornaments from the chandelier ;)
 this turned out well i think, i made the garland myself ;)


 the tree with gifts for everyone but kids because kids are nosey!
 top of the kitchen cabinets. my friend Liz made the reindeer candle holder
 more kitchen cabinets
 the reindeer table! complete with cinnamon pinecones
santa, snowmen and light up gingerbread house

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Thanksgiving

Hello everyone!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving here at our house! We had Mom, Dad and Brittany over for the big feast. Elijah was working that day and didn't get off work until 4:30.

Not too many details to share, just had a great day, great food, many things to be thankful for.














Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Elf Style!


you will want to hit the PAUSE button on the sidebar christmas music to listen to this elf yourself :)

Monday, November 15, 2010

San Diego Pictures

 Alyssa at breakfast at the Sheerwater in our hotel
 Shane at breakfast, at least it's not his Blackberry this time ;)
 Me, my kiddos and Allison with OP Otter at Sea World
 Shane, Cassandra and visiting bird ;)
 Jaws!
 Julie and Brandon at the Shamu Show
 Shane, Alyssa, Julie and Brandon
 Shane and Cassandra (up front) and Julie, Griffin (row behind them) on the Atlantis ride
 Allison, Griffin and Alyssa watching Shane and Julie take Cassandra for a 2nd ride

 Alyssa's beach pedicure


 camera shy or ostrich in training?
 me, Andy, kids ;)
 Savannah after her long day at the beach, boogie boarding
Alyssa and Griffin fell asleep holding hands :)

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Hello from the Hotel Del Coronado

We arrived at the Del on Tuesday, late afternoon. We had a great trip over, the kids did amazingly well! It did help that we had two new movies to watch on the way over and the big kids had some homework to work on ;) but we were happily amazed at how well Alyssa did too!

We love coming to the Hotel Del Coronado every other year for Shane's water conference :) Our first night we just walked around the grounds, enjoying the beach and all the sights. On Wednesday we were up bright and early for Sea World! We arrive shortly after it opened, perfect weather, hardly anyone at the park. One of the gate guys told us there would be maybe 2000 people in the park for the day. The downside was the clydesdales weren't there...I don't know if they've removed the attraction or if it was under renovations or what but I was very disappointed. Anyway, we fed the dolphins, saw the sharks, the Shamu show (Cassandra, Griffin, Brandon and Savannah sat in the 1st row of the soak zone with my BIL, Andy.) We also saw the sting rays, one took a particular shine to Alyssa and popped his head and most of his body out of the water and doused her with water. That resulted in a cute new shirt with Sea Turtles on it for her ;) We saw Seals, sea lions, all the usual suspects.

Thursday Shane was in conferences almost all day. So Julie, Andy and I took the kids to the beach. What a day! The weather was gorgeous, in the 70's. We rented boogie boards and Julie brought sand toys. We were there until about 1:00pm. We had 6 very tired, very waterlogged and sore kids. We got everyone cleaned up, fed and rested up. Shane and I went to a work dinner and it was nice to get dressed up. Andy and Julie watched the kids for us ;) I write this now in the dark as everyone is snoozing away! All in all, another great day! Tomorrow we are off to Seaport VIllage and downtown Coronado. I will upload pics when I get home!

XO

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Shane's Birthday Party

We had a really nice Saturday! I started out early making hashbrown casserole (Nancy's recipe) and peppermint flavored coffee. OMG! Yum ;) I baked Shane a spice cake with cream cheese icing and pumpkin bread for his bday party. Dee and I went to the Pussycat Boutique and I got to shop ;) I came home with 3 interesting tops, at least Shane liked them ;)

We took Dee to Phoenix to see some of the downtown area. We went to the memorial park and walked around, went to the Capitol building. Even though it was closed, there were good photo opportunities. We headed to the Mining Camp Restaurant for dinner. Shane's brother, wife, kids, my parents, Shane's parents all met us there. Dee loves that place so it worked out great!

Shane got some great birthday presents but I sadly admit, they are all XBOX games which means he won't be playing much World of Warcraft with me :( I'm trying NOT to have a complex about the fact that I start playing WOW finally and then everyone who did play (mom, dad, sister, elijah, andy, traci....shane) desert me! At least my dear friend Shari is still playing <3

Here we go with some pics....Happy 36th Birthday to my sweet sweet husband....

 Shane and Alyssa out front of the Mining Camp
 Alyssa and Brandon, hamming it up!
 Julie giving me a smile <3
 SO much food
 Birthday boy XOXOXOXO
 Brothers
 Mom, deep in thought apparently
 Mom, Dad, Mike
 Nancy and Griffin
 Savannah and Allison
 Savannah and Uncle Andy
 Best Friends
 Two of my most favorite people
 Holy hell...more games ;)
 Auntie and Elijah
 me and Julie <3 the peppermint coffee
 Civil War books!

 Shane, Dee and the kids in Phoenix

 Kids and the petrified wood outside the Capitol building
 One of the plaques on the K9 Police Memorial
 Native American Code Talkers Memorial
Pioneer women memorial