Neighbor Fun!

Rafi, and Ronnie are our neighbors.  The boys have so much fun with them.  I love seeing them play together.

Seeing the lights!!

Brea has some amazing lights to see at their candy cane lane.  We took the boys down with some hot chocolate and treats.

Next we took the boys up to the L.A. Temple.  We love to see the lights at the Temple at Christmas time.  

Isaac's preschool Christmas Party!

 Isaac's Christmas Party was super cute. He did such a good job.  

Homemade Christmas Party

One of my favorite things I do during Christmas time is throw a home made Christmas party.  At this party everyone brings a wrapped homemade gift and we exchange them white elephant style.  Every year I am in awe of the amazing things people make for this party.  I love seeing other people's creative ideas.  I love having the girls all over and a chance to admire each others creativity!  This party was started by a friend of mine who now lives in Newhall, CA but I still attend hers as well, because I love them so much.  

This year I made a table runner out of burlap and linen...My friend Hillary ended up with it!  That means I can visit it sometimes...

For the Newhall Party I made picnic placemats with pockets to put silverware in.  Then you can just roll your silverware up in them and have them ready to go at the park!  My friend, Jackie, ended up with these.  I made a set of 6 which is great because she has 5 in her family.

Christmas Decorating 2013

 The boys had so much fun decorating their doors like snowmen.  They were so excited to push all the pieces into place.  Kevin did an amazing job of setting the table (the first pic)  I had fun making our Christmas centerpiece.  Every year we wrap the boys' gifts early and put them up in the kitchen above the cabinets for decoration :)

Bryan took the boys to the Discovery Science Center Christmas Party.  They loved the Ripley's Believe it or not exhibit.  They couldn't believe this chair was made for a giant man.  We have so enjoyed our membership to the science center this year.  We are sad that it is expiring after a year of fun.  It was a great Christmas gift last year from Grandma and Grandpa!

                                       

Two Parties, One Crazy Day!

Party A.M.

Breakfast with Santa Clause!

We all got to open presents way before Christmas and to our surprise we all got new Jammies!

It was perfect timing because it was a jammie party!

 The kiddos were super excited because they each got a gift from Santa.  They all got books except Kevin got a notepad and a pen.

 They all listened to story about the true meaning of Christmas!  Owen stood in front and picked his nose...

 When Santa asked Kevin if he had been good this year, he responded, "Mostly" I love his honesty!

Party P.M.

Colony Park Holiday Party

This party was a little of a stress factor for me.  I am on the Colony Park Events Committee.  I get to help plan the events for our community.  This event was pretty big last year about 150 people but our neighborhood has grown another 50% since then so we figured we would get a big crowd.  We were having it at the new Cabana which was also going to be the grand opening.  The problem was that it held 120 people.  So we had planned on putting outdoor heaters outside to try to draw people out of the building.  Of course they were calling for rain all day...The Pool deck is not covered.  I was in charge of decorating.  This included setting up 4 Christmas trees and decorating the inside to make it look "holiday ish"  I am so fortunate that my good friend Debbie helped me because it took about 3 hours and I ended up being the person to let the catering in and the table and heater rentals people in and tell everyone where to set up and so on and so forth... we ended up with a little over 300 people at the party!  I would say it was a success, but I was just glad when it was over.  Afterwards we went out on a double date with Debbie and her Hubby, Brian, for some Pho and to watch the second Hunger Games movie.  It was nice to have a night out after this crazy party day!

 

The boys got to see Santa....again....

 Owen was not really very impressed...this is as close as he was getting....

Here is a group pic of the kiddos.  We have lots of friends in our neighborhood.  We feel blessed to live here!

Thanksgiving!

We had Thanksgiving with Nana and Bryan's Brothers and Sister this year.  Cindi had an amazingly beautiful table set.  It was fun the whole family together again.  We played Wits and Wagers after dinner while the boys watched a movie.  It was so much fun!

Bryan did an awesome job at carving the turkey...one of the best turkeys I have ever tasted...