Happy 60th Birthday Robynne/Mom/Grammy!

Happy 60th Birthday Robynne/Mom/Grammy! We hope you have a wonderful day! We love you lots and wish you many more happy memories over the years!

Happy 60th Birthday Grammy/Robynne!

Seems like just a couple years ago that we planned a surprise party for Robynne for her 50th birthday. Well, time has flown by so quickly it is scary, truly. In early November we knew Robynne's 60th birthday was approaching faster than we knew it. Kelli, Missy and I started to plan for a 60th birthday party in Robynne's honor. We figured we'd throw a 60th birthday party for family and friends at our house. We did a quick change from Christmas (we took down some of the X-mas decorations, couldn't get all of them down in just a day) to 60th birthday party. We had the party on December 27th, which was a Sunday because Robynne's "true" birthday fell on a week day. We had about 40 people in attendance and we all had a wonderful time. We hope Robynne enjoyed herself as much as we all did. Happy 60th Birthday Robynne. We love you!

Christmas Day at Grammy and Grandpa's

Once we celebrated Christmas as a family, we got moving and ready to go to Grammy and Grandpa's house. It is a tradition that we get there some-what early so Darin and Grandpa can make us eibleskiever. Eibleskiever is a danish pancake-like puff pastry, about the size of a silver dollar, you can top with powdered sugar or strawberry jam. I personally like them topped with powdered sugar. Once we arrived Auntie Missy arrived shortly after us. We had a nice breakfast with Mimosas for the adults and waited until Uncle Scott, Auntie Kelli, Tyler ans Kalin arrived. Once they arrived the kids just couldn't wait to open their presents. We opened them promptly, no time wasted. The kids tore into their gifts and wrapping paper was flying, literally. We always have a wrapping paper fight once the gifts start being opened, yup another tradition, not to mention it is fun. Hailey gave the ant farm to Kalin this year. The ant farm has been passed around the family for many, many years, 18 or better. I know when I had been dating Darin for a couple years, I opened the ant farm and thought it was really neat and started to tear off the plastic until they started screaming at me to stop, it was a joke. Go figure. I just thought, man I have never had an ant farm, this could be interesting. That was when I was officially welcomed into the family, 15 years ago. Crazy to think that Darin and I have been together for half our lives. Pretty amazing. We love each other today as much as we did back then, which is special for me at least. So, we finished opening gifts and then Uncle Dennis arrived. We always have fun with Uncle Dennis. Later in the afternoon we had dinner and desert. We had some great family time and many laughs. It is always fun to sit and reminisce about the past a giggle about the future. Good times, good family, we are so blessed. Thank the good lord above for our blessings! We had a fantastic Christmas and feel very fortunate for all our little blessings from the past, present and future. Merry Christmas to all!!

Christmas Morning

Darin and I woke up to Sydney saying "Oh my goodness, Santa came!!" We heard her footprints following the candy cane trail that lead from her and Hailey's room to the Christmas tree in the playroom and back to Hailey's room to tell her the news. Sydney said "Hailey wake up, Santa came, he really did, he came!" We wish we had a video camera to record it, we heard all of this from the monitors in our room which we have stationed into both Sydney and Hailey's room. Once she got Hailey up, Sydney gracefully helped Hailey out of her crib and they came into our bedroom to get us. "Santa came, Santa came Mommy and Daddy, he did really!" Sydney shouted. We got up and followed the girls into the playroom where the tree was. They were both really excited to find all their gifts from Santa and their stockings. We had fun watching them open their presents from Santa and the gifts from Mom and Dad. It was a fantastic morning, boy the girls are so much bigger this year, it's just incredible. What would Christmas be without our girls? We love them both to pieces and would be lost without them!

Christmas Eve

It finally arrived. The day that my girls were counting down until...Christmas Eve. Sydney would ask me on a daily basis since the beginning of December, "how many more days until Christmas?" Not only was Santa going to arrive at our house, but we spend Christmas Eve with my side of the family. We made our journey to the duck club in Benecia around noon on Christmas Eve. Not only were Nana and Papa waiting for us to arrive but the rest of the gang too. Uncle Scott, Auntie Kim, Uncle Ray, Auntie Kristy, Ashlee, Dillon, Brenden, and Ethan. My Grammy and Papa were waiting too! The kids played out on the playground, in the sand and fished in the pond. We took some pictures of all the families and kids and then headed inside once it got dark. We did a quick outfit change of the kids and put on their Christmas outfits. Annie, Unkie, Wowa, Jason and Seanie arrived just in time for dinner. "Happy Birthday Unkie" we all gave Unkie a hug as Christmas Eve is his birthday. We have a delicious dinner of prime rib and fresh crab along with the fixing's. The kids anxiously awaited to open gifts. Once the gift opening began it what chaotic but fun. The kids got gift galore! Of course they wanted every gift opened and they unwrapped them. Hailey was happy with the 1st gift she opened and didn't want to put it down to unwrap the others. She finally did with Sydney's help. Once we finished opening gifts we had desert...my favorite part of the evening. We also put the kids in their PJ's. By that time the kids were falling out, it was time to pack up the car and head home to await Santa's arrival. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Zoo Lights at the Oakland Zoo

I have been wanting to take the girls to see the Zoo lights at the Oakland Zoo just about since Sydney was born and just never got around to it. This year I made a promise not only to myself but to Sydney, that I would take her and Hailey to see the zoo lights. I knew they would both love it. We made it! I was off all week since Sydney was out of school, so I decided what the heck, let's go. It was a yucky weather day, it had rained all day and it was cold, about 45 degrees all day. We decided to go anyway. We invited Auntie Kristy, Ashlee and Brenden to go with us and they were game too. We bundled the kids up and the rain stopped just in time for us to walk through the zoo to see all the lights. We had so much fun, even without seeing any animals. They displayed the lights neatly and the kids loved the train ride seeing all the lights on the train and the light of the entire city. The kids rode the airplane ride, the carousel and the motorcycle/hot rod ride. We were all wiped out by the end of the night, but we had blast! It was an exciting short trip to the zoo!

Holiday Party/Darin's Birthday Party

Darin and I decided to have a Holiday party this year for all our friends and family...a Holiday break for us adults. It just happened to turn out to be on Darin's birthday. Darin and Jeffe' celebrate their birthday every year together. Jeffe' is 6 days older than Darin. So we HAD to celebrate! I had every intention of taking lots of photos at the party but apparently got a little side tracked. We did catch Jeffe' in his Holiday sweater though, the picture is priceless. Jeffe' posing next to Sydney's artwork! Classic! Thanks for the laughs Jeffe'...we love you! We all had a blast and partied the night away! Good times with good friends.

Sydney's Holiday Party at School

Mrs. Frye is reading the letters from Santa

Hot Chocolate and cupcakes..yum! Oh do you hear the footsteps on the roof?

Jori, Ariana, Gavin, Cole, Aaron, Hirini

Colin, Emma, Sydney, Madison, Bisi

Mrs. Frye (Sydney's Kindergarten teacher, filling in for her teacher, Mrs. Esteves on maternity leave) and I planned a Holiday party for the class for holidays. The children were allowed to come to school in their PJ's, which Sydney loves! She doesn't quite understand the concept of taking a bath, then putting on PJ's again. Why can't she just stay in the PJ's she slept in? Not such a good idea. The children got to rotate stations going from a station of making reindeer food, to making reindeer with your fingerprint station, snowflake picture frame station, Santa popsicle stick station, North pole Cupcake station and the beaded wreath station. Once all the children went through all the stations we handed out hot chocolate with candy canes in them, like the Polar Express movie and they indulged in their cupcakes while they drank their hot chocolate. Suddenly we heard some loud foot prints on the roof. An elf came in the class and said that she had a special delivery from the North Pole! Letter from Santa in a big envelope. Mrs. Frye sat all the children on the carpet and read each of their letters from Santa individually. Sydney's letter stated that he was glad that she was being nice to her sister. He was also going to try to bring her the Barbie Veterinary Clinic and the trampoline that she wanted. He was also going to try to bring Hailey a doll like she wanted as well. He said that he was magical and can see her all year round. It was really cute. We had a fun day on the last day of school for 2 weeks!! We got to say Happy Holidays to all the teachers and staff at Monticello!

Family Christmas Cards

This year we were successful yet again with the family portrait for our Christmas cards. Darin and I were shocked after the first go around with the "cousin" pictures. Hailey wasn't totally for it, but she warmed up. I swear Sharon and Nicole at the JC Penny portrait studio in Pleasanton are amazing. They weren't giving up on Hailey. I think I give up faster than them, which is amazing after working with children all day. Sydney on the other hand was a piece of cake with her hazel twinkle eyes and sweet smile. My friend Jill has started her own company creating cards of all types..with and without photos. We went on her site, http://www.paperboxpress.com/ and found the perfect cards. Hope you all liked them, we did! :) Check out her site, it is a lot of fun. I did my best to get one out to most, sorry if you were left out! Happy Holidays!

Cadillac Girls

I decided that the girls and I would try something fun for Daddy for his birthday. I wanted to take a picture of the girls on Daddy's 66' Cadillac. I dressed the girls in their cute jean skirts along with their Chuck Taylor's. I carefully laid a blanket in the car, so we didn't scratch the paint, and attempted to take pictures. It was extremely difficult, as usual. I think I tried a little too hard. Next time I think we will do some shots that aren't so staged. Happy Birthday Daddy!

Gingerbread house decorating and Bake off

Another tradition we have every year with my Mom,sisters, neices and nephews since Sydney was 2, is to decorate gingerbread houses and to bake to our hearts content...and beyond. Mom, Kim, Kristy, Ashlee, Dillon, Brenden, Ethan and Kalin all came over to decorate the gingerbread houses and also to bake cookies, bread, bars, fudge, peppermint bark and more! We started the festivities bright and early, at 9 am. We set out the candy for the children as we iced the gingerbread houses, which wasn't such a great idea. It took a long while to ice the houses as the icing would not stick to the houses very easily. By the time we had all the kids houses iced, they were FULL of sugar...yikes! Oh well, lesson learned on that. Each child had their own creative house, some with loads of candy and others with just a piece here and there. As the kids get older and older,t hey become more and more creative. It will be interesting to look back over the years at the photos of all the different houses over the years. Mom, Kim, Kristy and I baked and ate and ate and baked. We had a blast, as usual. By the end of the night we were wiped out. No more baking for a while.