New Years Eve Celebrations!

Can't believe we are once again at the end of another year. Since 2015 was such a big year for us, we had to send it off in style by having a "huge" celebration!! As we have done for the past several years since having kids, we celebrated at home with decorations and games. The kids have gotten more and more excited about this night every year. While the kids were out with Lyle running errands, I surprised them by putting up our decorations really quickly.

 Later that night we played games, watched some football, and rang in the new year with our little family all together!

As the kids, especially Ella, get older and spend more time with their friends, it is becoming painfully obvious that these kinds of parties are going to happen less and less. I hate the thought of that so much but so goes life. We are lucky to have them now. Lucky to have this life, these kids, this family, these sweet often stressful intense moments. 2015 was filled with big adventures for us, especially for the kids, as we learned to live in a new city and make new friends. I am so proud of how they have handled it. It has been a wonderful experience for us all and we look forward to what is to come in 2016.

Enjoying the rest of Christmas break with snuggles and lots of Star Wars!

The rest of the Christmas break we just chilled at the house playing with the kids' new toys (the drones are so fun!) and watching our new Star Wars movies. The latest Star War movie episode 7 The Force Awakens came out this past month and was a huge hit. The kids have not seen any of them so it was really fun watching all of them with them. Luke was totally into it of course...Luke Skywalker!
Here we are cuddle on the couch watching one of them. These moments are so sweet because as the kids get older I see these time coming less often.

Christmas Day Dinner

Since Lyle had the weekend after Christmas off, we decided to hold off on our big traditional dinner until then to make sure he could actually enjoy it with us. It was really fun this year but also a little intimidating. Lyle requested I make some of his family favorites which meant the famous Christmas rolls his mom always makes. When she was out here for Thanksgiving, she made them and gave me a few tips so with Ella's help we were going to attempt them this year along with her chocolate pie.
Ella helped me set the table. Not too fancy but I didn't bring any of our nice stuff with us to SF so we made do with what we had. It was still fun!

The rolls came out great! They were all gone by that night! I used the new pans I got from Ella this year at Christmas!

Here we are enjoying a really fun dinner with all of us at the table! Feeling so so lucky!

Christmas Day 2015

Christmas morning was finally here! But not one of us got any sleep! Lyle had to go to work around 1 AM so once he left I was wide awake. Luke could not sleep a wink! I could hear him bouncing around in his bed all night. Then around 2AM I thought I heard his door open so I went to see what was going on and there was Luke digging through the presents Santa had left.....luckily he didn't walk in on Santa. I yelled "Luke Jackson" and that little boy dropped the present he was holding and bee lined for his bed! It was hilarious! Then about 10 minutes later he came and crawled in my bed still wide awake! Here he is around 2:30 AM. Blurry but you get the idea.

Around 6 AM we heard Ella moving around and Luke was dying to go open presents so although I told them we had to stay in bed until at least 7, I went ahead and got up with them. I knew there was no chance for sleep!
Here is a rather terrible pic of what the tree looked like before they tore into the presents.

We pulled little AB out of her crib and you can tell from these pics that she is totally out of it. All she wanted was the hershey kisses!

The kids opened all their Santa gifts but we made them wait until Daddy got home around 9 am to open the family gifts. This year from Santa they got: a Fuseball table, an Amazon Alexa, drones, Star Wars box set, Bounce Off game, iTunes gift cards, then Luke got a pull up bar, books, a perplexus ball and a soccer ball, Ella got tennis shoes, boots, and a robe, AB got bottles for her baby dolls, a riding bike, wooden toys and some bath toys. I think I am missing some stuff but its all I can remember right now. They seemed very very happy!
Annabeth was so sweet on that day. There was so much for her to play with that we hardly heard from her all day. We would find her quietly playing with some of her new toys. Love that little baby!

Later that day after the massive Christmas explosion was cleaned up Ella and I pulled together a Christmas dinner made up of just finger foods. Lyle was going to be late that night so I didn't want to make a big dinner....we were saving that for the 26th when he had the day off and I knew he would be home to enjoy it. It was such a sweet, relaxing Christmas Day. I don't think the kids got out of their PJs all day!

                           

Christmas Eve 2015

Since Lyle was unable to take time off of work, we decided to spend Christmas here in San Francisco by ourselves. I was partially looking forward to this. I was so so ready to see all of our family and to get back home, but I thought it may be nice to not have to travel and run so much on Christmas. As the day got closer I was very homesick and so were the kids but Mims and Pa sent a huge box of presents which made everything better!! Since the kids got out of school on the 19th we have been baking Christmas cookies and planning all our Christmas meals like crazy! This is were Ella is very helpful. She loves to organize things and helped me put together a menu. When Christmas Eve finally got here we were ready!
Lyle was very strict about not letting the kids open any presents until Christmas morning (Luke was seriously going to pass out from staring at the presents so much:) so I helped them pass the time by playing some board games. Clue and Bugs in the Kitchen are currently our favorites but as you can tell from this pic, its always hard to play when AB isn't napping:)

We decided to go to Christmas Eve mass so the kids could take part in the Christmas play during mass. They were both shepherds. Here they are dressed and ready to go.

Ella took a quick pic of Lyle and me as well. So So happy he didn't have a case come up and was able to go with us!

Annabeth was so cute in her little Christmas dress. It was the same one Ella wore at that age.

We had to get to Mass an hour before it started to make sure we got seats and to make sure the kids were ready for their 'big' parts. So here I am with AB trying to keep her happy and praying she makes it through the service. See that red and green bracelet I am wearing.....Luke made it for me at school. He was so proud of it!

After Mass, the kids got ready for bed and bounced around the house too excited to sleep! Here they are piled on top of Lyle watching the Grinch. They kept running back and forth from the computer looking at the Santa Tracker. Nothing beats Christmas Eve excitement! Santa can't come if your still awake!

Two days til Christmas

This was Luke's face when he realized there was just two days left until Christmas Eve.

The kids got out of school on Friday (Dec. 19th) for Christmas break. When I picked them up from school I surprised them with a bag of Christmas Rolos and membership passes to the CA Academy of Science. Went spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the museum and being thankful that the long awaited Christmas break was here! This is a picture of them in front of the giant aquarium there. This museum is located in Garden Gate Park and is super cool!

 Since then we have been running errands and cuddling on the couch with some good Christmas movies. The excitement is crazy around here!

Our SF house decorated for Christmas

When I was packing up our things in Little Rock before moving here I wasn't sure how much storage space we would have especially for things like Christmas decorations so I packed only the things that were really important to us like our stockings and ornaments. It turned out to be just the right amount of stuff. Here are some pics of our SF house at Christmas:

 

Some of our favorite ornaments:

 

 Luke's Santa greets us when we come up the steps.

I'm sad to say I didn't get any pics of the lights we put up out front on our bushes but here is one of the back deck with our beloved Sutro Tower in the background!

Just a post on Luke

I wanted to give a little update on how each one of the kids are doing since moving to SF so I thought I would start with Luke.
When Luke went to the drs back in the summer he weighed 60 lbs and was 4'6". He is a rough and tumbly little boy in every sense of the words but also a sweet cuddly one too. Since moving here to SF, Luke started coming into our room every night to sleep with us. Although the bed gets a little crowded I am totally ok with that. Just like Ella, I know it will stop soon enough and I love that he feels safe and warm with us.
Luke started 1st grade this year and is doing awesome! At his first teacher's meeting, his teacher Mrs. Donovan told me that Luke is wonderful to have in class. That all the kids (especially some of the girls:) really love him and he fits right in. She also said that he is one of the kids at the top of the class. He is an excellent speller and doing great in every subject. We are so proud of that! Quite often, we will be wondering where Luke is in the house and we will find him down on the computer working on his Mathletics website...he loves learning and LOVES math! He was the winner of the Read-a-thon in his class which was a huge deal! Also, one sweet note which says a lot about the kind of person Luke is is that he had just received $10 from Papa during their visit here and he donated the whole $10 to his school to raise money for the "poor kids". I was proud of him and so was his teacher so he got an award for it and was interviewed on the daily SBTV (St. Brendan TV) which is aired every morning.
Luke has found a group of buddies that he seems to have really clicked with....especially Wells and Marco. They love sports just like he does and are the sweetest boys ever! He has lots of playdates with them throughout the week since they both live very close to us. He is a pic of him walking home with his buddies after school. He was also invited over to have a playdate with a little girl named Elise last week which cracks me up! He says she is a good friend and when I went to pick him up they were riding bikes in the street.

Not only is he a good friend at school but he is also a great brother. He is so sweet with AB and she adores him! "Brudder, Brudder", is all we here from the moment we pick the kids up from school. He and Ella are of course still the best of friends and tell me about the long talks they have after we tuck them in at night. I think they really enjoy sharing a room with bunk beds.

Luke is also our little dare devil. He loves adventure and being outside. Loves playing and watching every sport he can especially soccer right now.

He he is at our neighborhood Christmas party with Santa. Ella stayed home babysitting AB (for the first time) while Lyle, Luke and I went to the party right down the street. It was special for him to be the only kid for once.

And here he is as an angel for his Christmas play at school.

Love this kid so so much! He adds such a different touch to our family. His silliness brightens my day every single time!

MockingJay Part 2

I forgot to post this but really wanted to because it was such a fun night with Ella. Both her and I love the Hunger Games movies. I saw the first three with my sister in law Lauren and Ella watched them on DVD, so when the last one finally came out we were so excited to go see it. We left AB and the boys home for a fun girls night out.
Here is a pick of us in the movie theater right before the movie started. LOVE hanging out with my sweet and funny big girl!

St. Nicholas Day 2015

Its that time of year again...the time where the kids' make out there Christmas lists and put them on the front stoop for St. Nick to pick up. This is one of our favorite traditions! So, we put our lists in our shoes on the front steps (Luke took quite a tumble down the stairs as he was running to put his list in his shoe, maybe a little too excited) and patiently waited for that loud thundering knock letting us know his visit was complete and our treat was waiting. This year he got the kids their Christmas PJs and lot so candy!!
Here are some pics after the excitement. Apparently Annabeth still doesn't understand you have to be good for Santa Claus:)
Love these excited, full of life little kids. Not a care in the world. They just want to be with us. Such sweet moments.

Union Square Christmas Tree

After our trip to the zoo, I had to take Ella to a birthday party which was at an ice skating rink in Union Square. So, we left AB and Luke with daddy and the two of us jumped on the Muni and headed out for  a little adventure. After her party we walked around Union Square and looked at all the pretty decorations and window displays. Macy's was very pretty this time of year. We attempted to eat at the Cheesecake Factory before heading home but unfortunately my phone died and I couldn't be somewhere were Lyle couldn't get a hold of me in case he had to go in for an emergency case so we quickly took a picture of the beautiful tree from the balcony and headed back out. It was a fun little trip just us girls!

Trip to the zoo to see Reindeer

I found out that the SF zoo which are members of where having reindeer visiting for the holiday season so I loaded the kids up for a fun trip to the zoo including some warm hot chocolate....which was really helpful because it has been really really cold here in San Francisco lately like usually cold!

There were four reindeer and their names were Peppermint, Velvet, Scarlett and Cinnamon.
Really fun way to kickoff the Christmas season! I think little Annabeth really enjoyed it especially because we spent quite a bit of time at the zoo playground afterwards:)

 

Christmas Tree Farm

This year we decided to do something a little different for Christmas. We have never had a real Christmas tree before so since there was a really cute Christmas tree farm just minutes from our house we decided to give it a try. So, while Mims and Pa stayed at home with a sleeping Annabeth, Lyle, Ella, Luke and I decided to head to the farm to pick out our first tree! It was super easy and the within about 10 minutes we had a beautiful 6.5 foot tree picked out with a watering base put on the end and it tied to the top of our car. So fun and easy!

Next up was the decorating! I pulled on the ornaments and decorations down and let the kids have at it! They puts on all the ornaments and Ella had the rest of the house decorated within about two hours! She was awesome at it! We also put some lights on the little bushes in our front yard and wrapped the banister on our back deck. Super easy and really cute! Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! So glad Mims and Pa could join us this year!

 

And wouldn't you know it...Herman our family Christmas Elf showed up at our house. He followed us all the way to SF!! He always shows up on the top of our tree the first day. This pic was taken a couple days later. We love Herman!