My Baby Boy

So my baby boy turned 9 on January 10th and again I wonder where the HECK did the time go!!!

I'm truly grateful that Heavenly Father chosen me to be this precious boy's mom....So, this year it was a little different, we decided that we would have birthday parties every other year and honestly it didn't effect Nate in the least...Normally, we open presents in the morning but this year we opened after school before Blake left very early to work that morning. If you recall, in our family the birthday person decides what on the menu that day, they get to decided what's for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nate decided he wanted for breakfast; sunnyside up eggs, toasts and sliced apple, lunch: was a cheeseburger happy meal(which he was the envy of his classmates), I also made a candy lei with all his favorite candies; Twix and Kit Kats and for dinner; Salmon, couscous and peas.

 Nate is such a funny kid and it definitely was shown when he was opening his presents and his siblings were excited for him too.

 Nate was so happy with his gifts especially with....

 DS...with took him 5 minutes to figure out he got because he saw the carrying case and thought that was the only gift he got and was so BUMMED, but then again, it doesn't help that his dad wrapped it up in a brown paper bag.

 So this I was so sick, that I cheated and brought his cheese cake instead of making it myself and it was late before we had his cake, that he was in his jammies.

 These are the annual birthday photos I took:

My favorite is this photo because it's shows his personality.

Rocking In The New Year!

Since we were staying home for New Year Eve, we decided it was time to host our first  New Year Eve's party....and the invites went out.

And we ROCKED in The New Year!!!!

 We had so much fun...as you can see I couldn't even sing because the band members were making me laugh so hard!!!

 And as for the kiddies...they were downstairs in the family room, watching a movie!

 These were the brave singers and we all had a BLAST!

 Here are some of the band members and some audience enjoying the music!

 But we definitely needed help...for some it was their first time!!!

 But this Chick ROCKED it OUT!!!!

Then it was their turn!!!!(Yes, I know there's an adult there but if anyone know Jed, he's a BIG kid.)

We had a ton of fun...adults making animal sounds were the BEST....(sorry Melissa, you just couldn't get the hang of it!) games, movies, food and good friends made the last day of 2010 the BEST!!!!

Christmas Season!

 This Christmas we stayed here in Washington and truly had a good time! For Christmas Eve, we had a mix of traditional Puerto Rican food and we watch the classic "A Christmas Story"...which by the way, was more worldly that I remember and it wasn't edited!  But here is some of the food we had for our dinner.

 I wanted a family photo of us at dinner, so I put the camera on the tri-pod and this was the best of all the photos I took....not the best photo of me but cute of the the kids.

One of our tradition for Christmas Eve, is that the kids get to open one gift and it's their Christmas pj and this year it was the warm and cozy pj pants.

 Before bed, we had to prepare a snack for Santa.

 Ahh, our pretty Christmas tree.

 So, we made a deal with the kids...they could get up at 7:30 but not before!!! The boys were up early and when 7:30 rounded around Mya was still sleeping....so the boys had to wait until their sister wake up and she did at 8:40...we were mean parents making them wait!

 Christmas morning and Santa came!

 Opening their presents

The kids with all their presents...they SCORED.

The last year, we had Christmas bunch with our friends and played games and this year was no exception. We had a great time spending our Christmas day with friends and are very fortunate to be so BLESSED!

Tis The Season

December is one of our favorite month...These are a few of our favorite things to do before Christmas!

First: Decorating the house for the holidays, the feeling of entering a home that shows that Christmas is coming, is so great and helps you get in the mood.

Second: Sending and receiving Christmas cards! I love getting Christmas cards from my family and friends. I also love displaying them...even though my cedar tree card holder isn't holding up many(need to make a bigger on next year), I love looking at those cards.

Third: Getting a new ornaments every year for our family. As many of you know, we have a tradition of getting a new ornament every year for each member of our family and when my kids are married, they will get their ornaments for their tree and hopefully continue the tradition with their families.

 

Fourth: Attending Christmas Programs! We went to support some of my friends in my hula troop that were performing for their church and it was truly AMAZING and COLD!(It was outdoors and it was freezing! Good thing I made all of us wear our snow pants and cold weather gear!)

Fifth: Helping set up, hosting and attending "The Nativities from Around The World", that our community and the lds members put together....it's truly a sight to see, this year one of the focus were Joseph holding the baby Jesus, truly beautiful!!! This is the third year I have helped and I enjoy every minute of it. The kids enjoy the children area, especially the dress ups. I truly love how these photos turned out!

Sixth: The Ward Christmas Party! This year was especially fun and the food was YUMMY!!! A Christmas party isn't a party without Santa.

Seventh: Making crafts and this year were sock snowmen, we had a great time being creative and they made great friends gifts

Eighth: Being with friends! Attending white elephants parties are truly the best with great friends.

Ninth: Sledding! This year we had enough snow to truly have fun with it and we did!

Tenth: Caroling! We caroled with my hula troop and their families at a retirement home. We truly had a great time and the audience requested a hula, so we did but the surprise was Mya dancing her first hula and solo!(this wasn't planned!) She was AWESOME!!!! The other highlight of the night was when Isaac told us that he felt good singing to the elderly..... PRICELESS!

Eleventh: Making Ginger Bread Houses! This is one our traditions that we do every year and the kids have a blast making their own houses.

 

Finally, remembering why we celebrate Christmas....because of HIM!