Christmas in Cali

This Christmas we went to California to be with some family. We did the long drive, and thankfully we had a smooth drive there and back without any problems. First we stayed with Austin's Mom, Karen, or Opie as the grandkids call her. She just bought a new house and she had been busy trying to get it ready for visitors. It was fun, but very chaotic with a brand new baby just home form the hospital (Cody and Kendra's), a new puppy Garrett was getting for Christmas, our family of 4, plus a few days later Jesse, Tara, and Bella.. it was a full house! We all had a great time together and enjoyed the new little addition to the family, Baby Blaze. We spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning there, then we headed to Scotts Valley to Richard and Lynn's (Poppi and Noni) house. And we spent the next couple days with them playing games, watching movies and of course I got in a run with Lynn and Tara on some beautiful trails with Redwood Tree's.

Tyler is at a fun stage right now with Christmas and it was so fun for me to watch her excitement and anticipation for Santa Clause. And Kai was an amazing present opener and had no problems tearing the presents open as fast as she could!

It was so nice to have everyone together and spend time helping Kendra with her new baby, playing lost of games, running every day, and eating lots of food!

We had a wonderful Christmas and I am grateful for so many things this year and I know we are truly blessed with wonderful family and friends. I am grateful to be home safe from the long car trip and to have our warm house to come home to. After we got home, we opened a few more presents from other family and parents and the emotion was so strong that I couldn't help but cry because of how grateful I am for such loving parents and in-laws. Tyler asked why I was crying, so Austin and I had a long talk with her about how some children don't have as much as she has and that we need to always be grateful and give back. I told her that I was crying because of how happy I am and that is the truth, I am happy, healthy, and incredibly blessed. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the New Year!

This was taken at Karen's house in Oakley, CA

Bella and Kai... two peas in a pod. Kai likes to "mother" Bella, and treat her like a baby, but it's funny because they are almost the same size.

Who cares about presents, the boxes and bows are the Best part!

New baby Blaze with Richard and Lynn.

Decorating the Christmas tree at Opie's house. The boys went through some of their past ornaments that they made when they were kids.. it was fun to listen to their stories that went along with an ornament.

Uncle Garrett read, The Night Before Christmas, and the three little girls just adore their Uncle Garrett!

Playing a new game Tyler got from Popi and Noni.

Then, of course the Men have to turn a 3 year old's game into a heated competition.

Tyler and Kai in their new twirly skirts from Grandma and Grandpa Gregory. They have only taken them off to go to bed since they opened them 2 days ago.

Happy Birthday Kai Kai

Kai Ann is now 3! I just can't believe how time flies! She is such a little blessing to have and we just love her so very much. Kai is the cutest little girl and we love having her around us all the time. She can be challenging at times because she has so much personality, but she is also very loving and says, "Mom, I love you" and "Mom your so nice" periodically out of the blue (sure glad she thinks that even after ALL the times I have to put her in time-out). She adores her Daddy and wants to talk to him on the phone all the time and can't wait to see him after he gets home from work and she looks up to her big sister, wanting to do everything she does, as she is her best friend. We love her and have loved these 3 years with her. Kai is definitely aware that it is her birthday and all she wants is a birthday cake and she has made that very clear! She is such a special little girl and we all adore her!

Kai Kai.. Happy Birthday! We love you!

I just LOVE these Girls!

This post is a "just because", because I took these pictures of the girls the other day while they were so cute in their Christmas skirts and I thought they looked adorable! I love these two little girls more than anything in the world and I am blessed that they love me unconditionally back, even after I get upset with them for something, the second I go to hug them, they are all full of love.

Austin has been gone a lot lately with school and his wrestling coach job, that we don't see much of him during the week, so it has really been just the three of us (and Amiga) most the time and we have been doing fun things and spending a lot of time together. I have not had a car to get around (since I blew the tire in our Mini and Austin has not had time to fix it since he has finals right now), so we have just been home, coloring, reading books, etc.. I love to just spend time with them and being with them all day. So, anyway, my just because post is all just because I love my girls!!

It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas!!

I just love this holiday season, it makes me so happy and feel so good inside! I love to just sit in my house and have all the reminders of Christmas all around me and listen to Christmas music. We decided to just get a small tree this year since we will be going to California, but even though it's small, I still love it! Tyler and Kai keep asking ever day if Santa comes today (this will be a long December), and they started their advent calendar to the countdown (thank you Grosi). This year we will spend Christmas in California with some family. It will be so fun to spend time with family this holiday season and meet our new baby nephew on the Schmidt side of the family. I can't help but be so thankful with how blessed we really are I am thankful for all our blessings and to be together as a family this Christmas, because that is what really matters. Here are some pic's of what makes me so very happy! Tis the Season!

Austin did a GREAT job on the Christmas lights on the house!

The stockings are hung just waiting for Santa!

And what Christmas is truly about, the nativity scene.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year with these little girls! (sorry the pictures are in backwards order..) Tyler was a witch and Kai was a monkey and the cutest monkey I have ever seen, every house we went to people had to comment how darn cute Kai was and she was so happy and exited to say trick-or-treat and then get candy! Then she would immediately say, "mommy, can we go to another house now?" And Tyler was a champ, she stayed running with the big kids and wanted to go to as many houses as possible. Before trick-or-treating we went to our neighbors for a halloween party that they have every year, we played games and had scary food to eat. I made "mummy pizza's" to take over, and they had other items there like bloody fingers (chicken trips), mummy toes, and lots of other scary things to eat. Then we started to walk through the neighborhood trick-or-treating with some friends, when Austin and our neighbor decided to go get our trailer and hook it up behind his Excursion. So we piled a lot of kids in the trailer and drove through the neighborhood trick-or-treating. They got so much candy and loved every minute of it. And thankfully, we had a dry evening! We had non-stop rain for 24 hours before the evening of halloween, then it stopped raining and was actually not very cold for the entire night.

This is the "candy sorting" party that we all love to do! We did this the morning after Halloween because we were too tired that night

The trailer filled with kids going trick-or-treating

Tyler doing good, filling her pillow case with candy!

She was making a drink out of witches brew!

My mummy pizza's we took to the party.

Aren't they so adorable! Or scary I guess I should say since Kai wanted to be a scary monkey and Tyler wanted to be a mean witch... what is with that?

Yes, I dressed as a witch too! But I was a nice witch.

This was the day before Halloween before Tyler went to preschool in their adorable skirts that Grosi made.

Carving Pumpkins/Pumpkin Patch

We have had a fun past few days celebrating halloween. First we carved pumpkins this weekend and that is always fun at our house. Kai really loved to clean the "pumpkin guts" out and played in the guts for a long time, she loved the feel of it. Tyler has never been so fond of the feel, but she got through it by washing her hands every few minutes. And Austin did a very cool pumpkin as usual with the skull and flames of etc. I did the haunted house one and Austin and Tyler did the other skull head. Overall, it was a great family fun filled evening!

Then on Monday Tyler's preschool had a field trip to the pumpkin patch and I took the girls. That is always fun. They have a small petting animal area with a baby cow, baby goats, baby pigs, a bunny, and baby horses. Tyler and Kai loved touching the animals, but the pig's scared Kai a bit as they were very interested in her and wanted to sniff her a little too much for her liking. We went for a hay ride, went through a hay maze, then the kids got to pick their own pumpkin out of the patch to bring home. It was a fun day!