Olympia Friends Santa Breakfast

BFFs...we started a tradition of having a Santa Breakfast for our kids. This year was the best! Most of the kids were at the PERFECT age...all the wonder and amazement on their faces was captured!

All the kids scrambling to see Santa...he is outside, just flew in on a jet! Last year he rode in on a fire truck!

Ab and two of her beautiful kids

Santa was cracking Logan up!

Dom was so excited to sit on Santa's lap

Anna did not really want to sit with Santa unless Mommy was with her! She did end up taking the present though!

Gianna wanted me to "go with her"

Nick did a great job

The Kissel Family smiling for their mommy

I think this picture has all of the kids...we took about 10 pictures since kids kept crawling in and out!

It was also Zach's birthday so we ended the party with a birthday party for him!

Some of the kids eating cake and ice cream...the others were off playing!

Such a great time together!

Starting off the weekend...

Friday night, 10:15 pm, finally got the kids settled down and into bed, after a wild evening at Grandma and Grandpa's. I had just prayed with them, kissed them, when I heard a gasp downstairs. I ran down and it was TONI AND JARED and the BOYS, earlier than we expected, from Wenatchee!YEAH YEAH YEAH, we have missed them so much this last month and a half. A minute later I hear 3 sets of little feet pounding down the stairs after me...needless to say, 11:00 pm was the bedtime this night!

Pure joy at being together

Cash loved Nick's curls

Gianna can't get enough of Baby Cash!

Cousins Christmas

All the cousins and their spouses...

all the "little cousins"

The Story: Each Christmas Eve the guys have some sort of tournament in the morning. For the past 2 years it has been a golf tournament...the two sides of the family pitted against each other. Of course my hubby LOVES to place bets on everything and anything and sadly-he lost! So my brothers and Vinny had to jump into the lake as the result to losing the bet! FREEZING!!! Here they are in the WARM house getting ready to run down (and if you have been to our lake lots, you know it is a pretty long run down and up!)

The Run Down...at least they are smiling!

Jumping in...where is Dan going?

Warming up in the hot tub after the lake

All the guys in the pic below were the winners of the tournament!

Hanging out

Kidding around with Uncle Dan

G was so happy to be with her Auntie Toni

The kids opened gifts first since they got a present from EVERYONE! All the kids were so blessed with the amount of gifts and thoughtfulness from everyone!

Nick was so excited to get hiking boots from Grandma and Grandpa. He and Vinny go on a lot of hikes and he had outgrown his old pair.

Nick quickly organized all of his loot, and took it to a place where there was less chaos!

This picture of the floor just amazes me-the amount of gifts!

A funny gift to my dad before he opened his real gift!

A re-gift from last year. This was a picture of Vinny that we had hung at his 40th surprise party and now it is making the rounds each year at the Christmas gift exchange!

And here we have "Law and Order" our mom's nicknames!

Dominic's Nutcracker Art

Once again, the website artprojectsforkids.org gave us a great guide to drawing step by step. Dominic drew this picture just by following 6 steps. He even added some parts of his own. Pretty great for a 5 year old!

Treats for the Birds

Today we read the story Night Tree by Eve Bunting and then made little treats to hang from the trees for the birds. I found this idea on the Crafty Crow blog.

Kinzley making her bird treat.

Dom working on his

Even Bjorn made one!

The finished products

Kinzley made a book about bird food, and then she read it to her dad when he picked her up!

Dom wanted to write the sentences himself for his book.

Before nap we read Christmas stories by "tree-light." They had such a great time!

Things to Remember...

Tonight when Vinny and Dom were driving home from a PTO meeting they were singing the Eagles song- "I got this feeling I may know you..." and then Dom busted out with- "I got a feeling my sister bugs me!" to the same tune...too funny, since he is mostly so sweet to her! But believe me, he has a right to sing that!

Every night while we tuck the kids in Vinny asks them what the best part of their day was. Tonight after Gianna told the best part of her day, she then asked back- "Daddy, what was the best part of your day?' I love seeing the reciprocating in relationships!

While Iwent to the dentist today Vinny had the kids at school with him. Gianna got one of her dreams-come-true..on stage, with a microphone, talking! (she is such a little boss that it was heaven to her when she got to excuse the kids to recess on the microphone!) Every Sunday it is a fight to keep her in the seat with us-she longs to be up on the stage, singing with the Worship Group.If we said yes, she would run up there...I don't know where she gets it!

Today as were driving to school, Gianna had some reaction to something (can't remember what) and Dom said: " G you are so dramatical!" (Which she is...)

The Puppy

So there is stuffed puppy that lives in our house that both Gianna and Dominic love, adore, and fight constantly over. G usually gets the puppy while Dom is at school, and Dom gets it when he is home from school...now the puppy does not even officially belong to either child-it was originally Nick's puppy. Here is the latest story from this morning, (by the way, I told them in a not-very-nice way this morning that if I heard one more argument over the puppy I would be finding it a new home)...

Dom gets in the car after school, sees Gianna holding the puppy and says, "G you said you would give it to me when school was over" (which she did say that).

G holds the puppy tighter while I threaten her to give him the puppy.

My hand reaches back to take it from her when she decides she will give it to Dom.

As Dominic settles into his seat, with the puppy in hand, we hear a sing-song voice say:

"I wiped my boogars on the puppy Dom. I wiped my boogars on the puppy." (Her attempt at getting it back)

How does she know to do this at age 3?

Truth be told-she did NOT wipe boogars on the puppy, so then we had to talk about lying and she had to pray to God for forgiveness...

I seriously can't wait to get a REAL dog and I know the kids can't either.

Grandma-Helping in Dom's Classroom

My mom "grandma-helped" in Dom's classroom today. While she was there she taught them the 5 Little Snowmen song. What a fun memory!

Joysong Victorian Carolers Concert

My mom has sung in a Victorian Carolers group for many years now and it is always a highlight of the season when we get to attend a concert of theirs. This year they were in Port Townsend for a concert and it was a wonderful time for our family.

Grandma and the grandkids

The whole concert Gianna was begging us to get up on the stage with Grandma. When asked what she was going to do once she was up there, she said "sing the ABC's and Jesus Loves Me" She has the most unbelievable desire to be on stage-each Sunday at church she begs/demands to get up on the stage and sing with the choir! I am shocked b/c that is the farthest thing from what I would ever desire! Being on stage is a TERRIFYING thought to me. G must have her "Bramma" in her!

Doesn't she look like an angel here? WELL- she was not acting like one! She was not happy we wouldn't let her up on the stage and was testing us in every way she could think of...we were willing her with our eyes and "stern" faces to STOP when she was too far out of reach and knew we did not want to cause a scene...this girl is far too smart for her own good.

On the last song, as Joysong walked out down the aisle, Grandma grabbed Gianna and had her walk with her- Gianna was very happy!

Our friends the Glassers came down to the concert with us. We were so happy to share this time with them and so thankful they were with us!

Hopie loved the muff of my mom's!

After the concert, waiting for Grandma

Idle time turns to wrestling time...

and kissing Nick...embarrassing the 12 year old!

Dominic really can't get enough of his big brother!

Sequim Santa Breakfast 2009

Each year we attend the Santa Breakfast and get the picture with the kids and Santa. The breakfast is great in a couple of ways...the kids get to see Santa (pics are free), it raises money for the levy campaign, and the breakfast is huge! Thanks for being a good sport Nick!

Dom was telling Santa he would like a horse trailer-what are we to do now? His Santa gift has changed! UGH!

Grandma and Grandpa have been here almost every year for the Santa Breakfast with the kids. Lucky us!

"the grils" according to G!