Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! The kids had so much fun... almost as much as mom and dad! Jaden got a bike, and Baylee a tricycle. Aubrey got a little playgym, but at this age, it's mostly a gift for mom! Every year gets more and more fun. We got to tell the kids the story of Jesus' birth and hear them re-tell it in their funny little way. We got to hear them say happy birthday to Jesus. We got to spend time with our families, and even have one of our famous theology debates with uncle Jerry. It was a wonderful Christmas. We are truly blessed!

December

December has been very busy so far. Here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks. Jaden's been sick. I was just telling Anne that he's never fallen asleep anywhere funny before, and then this week he does it twice! He's been singing jingle bells constantly. Baylee chimes in with the last word from each verse... "Bells!" "Way!" "Hey!", spinning in circles and doing her little Baylee dance, so cute. We have had a lot to do to get ready for Christmas. The kids are very excited. They love all of the decorations, especially the tree. I can't keep them away from it. We are having so much fun!

December Pictures

Gingerbread House

We went to Ama and Ampa's last night and made a gingerbread house! Ashley came too, but unfortunately Steven had to work. The kids had a great time. Of course, Baylee just ate all of the candy. Jaden ate his fair share as well, but understood the concept a little more and did use some of it for decorating. If it wasn't for Ashley, it would have been a very pitiful little house! She did most of the work. I did contribute a cute little door and window after mom complained that it looked nothing like the picture on the box. (yes, it was a kit) In the end, it turned out pretty cute and we had a fun night hanging out together.

Christmas Program

Jaden was in a little Christmas program at his school last night. It was very cute. He was incredibly excited about it and sang with enthusiasm and a huge smile! He keeps saying/screaming/singing, "Mystery Christmas! Mystery Christmas! And a Happy Two Ear!" Also, "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells All Da Way!" He was a little rambunctious. When I say a little, I mean that Miss Bonnie had to scold him over the microphone in the middle of the show. :)However, he did about as well as we expected and surprised us with his excitement and not an ounce of stage fright. We were proud of him, and it was a lot of fun!

Christmas Tree

I love having a blog because now I have something to do with the ridiculous amount of pictures I take! We went out today after church and got our Christmas tree. It was our first time going to cut one down, but we ended up just buying a pre-cut one because all of the fresh ones were ugly. :( Oh well, the kids had fun on the little train they had there, and Ama and Ampa and Uncle Buddy and Osh (Steven and Ashley) are always fun to hang out with for the afternoon.

Thanksgiving Weekend

So Much to be Thankful For!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. I cooked, we had my parents, Steven and Ashley and Grandma Coles over. We had a nice time, the meal turned out well and it was a very relaxing and fun day. We truly have so much to be thankful for! We took the advice of our friends the Bussells and looked up President Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. Tony and I read it and it will definitely be a tradition for our family from here on out on Thanksgiving. Here is a little excerpt that we thought was wonderful... after listing a great many blessings the Lord had given them, Lincoln says "No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People." It saddens me that our nation no longer thanks the Lord with one heart and one voice. We have been taught that we are thanking the Indians for teaching the Pilgrims how to farm, or other such silly stories. Or just that we are just generally thankful for our families and material blessings. However, Thanksgiving was, from that very first feast until the feasts of Lincoln's day and beyond, designed to offer thanks to the Lord. Lincoln said, "set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." This is what we are thankful for! As we learn more and more of our great God, we are able to be more and more thankful, and in turn, we receive more and more joy from Him. What a blessing that is! We all have a great many material things to be thankful for living in America. However, more than that, we have the ability to worship freely and to know the Living God. There is no greater blessing than that!

Vacation

We're home! We had a wonderful time on our trip to Reno with my parents.

First, we drove up to Sacramento. We went to the Sacramento Zoo and had a blast. The kids loved all of the animals. They were very excited about the monkeys and Giraffes! They also found a fish tank that was very interesting. The hit of the day had to be the train though. Ama and Ampa took the kids on this cute little train ride around the zoo. They loved it!

After the zoo, we headed over to Reno. The drive to Reno was so beautiful. It was a perfect day, and it was a fun mountain road complete with a winding river and thick forest all around. Tony and I had a great conversation about God's wonderful sense of humor when creating certain animals, while Aubrey peacefully slept. I'm pretty sure my parents were listening to "Little Einsteins" all the way there, as they took Jaden and Baylee in their car. :)

Once in Reno, we had dinner and took the kids out for ice cream. Everyone settled in pretty easily. Luckily my mom and dad took Jaden in their room, because our bed was pretty crowded. The next morning we went out for breakfast, which is always an adventure, then we headed to Cabelas. We didn't plan on it being so packed, I guess we aren't the only crazy people out there! It was great, though. Jaden was amazed by the animals. There was a Safari section right when we walked in with a lion, elephant, zebra and many other animals. I think the kids liked it even better than the zoo because they got to get so close. Along the back wall was a huge mountain with all kinds of different animals. Through the mountain a little stream ran into a pond that had some trout in it. The man who was feeding them there gave Jaden a handful of food to throw in. He loved that! There was an aquarium with all kinds of fresh water fish, and of course, many different animals hanging on the walls and from the ceilings. My Dad and Tony even took the kids into the little "shooting range" they had for kids, and they had a great time shooting at stuff. We spent four or five hours there before the kids were finished. They actually did very well for not napping.

Sunday, we headed home. We had a lazy morning and drove back through the beautiful mountains. We ended up back in Sacramento around lunch time and stopped at Funland for a couple of hours to break up the trip a little for the kids. It's just a fun little place for small children, merry-go-rounds, train rides and roller coasters. They loved it! It was probably the most fun they had on the trip. Jaden got to go on a dragon roller coaster with Ampa and had a blast! We thought it might scare him, but he loved it. My parents took Jaden and Baylee on a fun car ride, and Tony and I took them on the train. It was a very nice break in our drive home. It was very refreshing for us to get away for a few days, and much easier than we anticipated.

Special thanks to my mom and dad, they were a huge help with the kids and great sports! It's kind of a bummer stopping every 3 hours so I can nurse Aubrey, and going to bed at 8:30 because the kids can't sleep with the lights on. They are wonderful grandparents (and parents)! If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have even attempted a trip like this! Plus, the kids favorite part of the whole thing was that they were with Ama and Ampa. They made up silly songs (that I'm still listening to), and just made it so much more fun. Thanks mom and dad!

Sydney

Lazy Afternoon

We spent most of the day today getting ready for our trip tomorrow to Reno! We did find a little time to play in the back yard though, and here are a couple pictures of Jaden playing.

Earlier in the day, my mom brought over new boots and a new jacket for Jaden to wear on the trip. As you can see, he refused to take them off. This last picture is Jaden jumping on the trampoline. Theresa and Felix gave us this trampoline, and it is the best thing ever! Jaden just jumps and jumps and jumps until he wears himself out. He loves it, and he definately has the extra energy to burn!

We will be back Sunday evening, say a prayer for us! We're looking forward to our time together and (hopefully) some relaxation.

Jumperoo!

Why is my little boy so big already?

First Date

I can't believe that Aubrey is already 8 weeks old! Last night Tony and I finally got a chance to get out by ourselves, the first time since he was born. (Thanks to my mom and dad who took the kids!) We drove everyone up to Hart Flat and dropped the little ones off with my parents and then headed up to beautiful Tehachapi to have a nice dinner at a little Japanese restaraunt called Kasagiri. My brother Steven is a sushi chef there and made us some really yummy stuff. It was my first experience with sushi. I actually tried a few different things, but Tony wouldn't get near the raw stuff. He liked the double fried shrimp roll, but I don't think that really qualifies as sushi! I liked the eel I tried, but the thought of it kept me from finishing the whole thing. (Yes, I had to eat it in little tiny bites.) The philly roll was another story. At first I tried to take a bite off of it, but that was quite difficult. So everyone (Steven, Tony and some guy at the bar who was coaching me) said to just stuff the whole thing in my mouth. I really should have trusted my insticts, but I went ahead and tried. At this point, I think Steven was wishing I hadn't come to his work to embarass him! I'll spare you from the rest of the story, but I think from now on I'm sticking with cooked food. Our tempura was yummy though, and we had a great time just hanging out by ourselves. Thanks to Steven for putting up with us, we'll probably come back and get a steak next time! I'm just a Bakersfield girl afterall. :)

Thanks Ama and Ampa!

My parents just returned from a fun trip to Solvang, and got the kids these cute shirts. Aubrey's says, "I'm the apple of Grandma's Eye" Baylee's says, "Thats it! I'm going to Grandma's" and Jaden's says, "My favorite thing at Grandma's

house is Grandpa." Jaden got a second one that says "Daddy knows a lot, but Grandpa knows everything!"

We think they're adorable! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Sick Day

Both of our munchkins are sick today. So far, Aubrey is fine. They just have colds, but this is really the first time they've been this sick. They've lost their little voices and just want to lay around the house. I must admit it's kind of nice. Everyone has been in pajamas all day, and we've watched Cars twice already. I think this is the first time since he's been able to walk that Jaden has cuddled with me. He keeps saying, "Mommy, I'm not sick anymore... let's go to Reese's house!" (We should have gone to Reese's today for bible study and he remembers) He is pretty tired though, and I think he's enjoying being so lazy. Hopefully everyone will be well by the weekend, but for now, it's a nice little break. :)

Our Weekend

We had a pretty lazy weekend. Other than a few errands, we just stayed at home and got some work done. No one felt particularly well, except maybe Aubrey. But everyone is doing better today and we are excited about the new week. Here are a few pictures from our weekend.

Baylee's Ready!

Our Family loves Cabelas! We are planning a trip to Reno in a couple of weeks with Ama and Ampa to the grand opening of the new Cabelas there. For those of you who have never been, it's just a huge retail store for outdoorsmen, but it has displays of just about every animal you can imagine inside (stuffed, of course!) Along with all kinds of cool stuff to buy if you are into hunting and fishing.

We have been telling the kids about it for a couple of weeks. They are very excited about seeing all of the animals, and Baylee loves to wear Daddy's "Bella" hat. We are planning to go up through Sacramento and stop at the zoo as well. Jaden's a little concerned about the tigers and crocodiles. He keeps telling us that we can't get close to them because they are too dangerous! Baylee's just excited to be going somewhere with "Pa" as she calls him (my dad.) She's also excited about the giraffes, hopefully there will be some either at the zoo or at Cabelas. Anyway, we can't wait, but wish us luck, it's a pretty long road trip for 3 little ones!

Pumpkin Patch

We finally made it out to the pumpkin patch today! We went with our friends the Karrers and got some great pictures. The kids loved it! It is so much fun now that they are getting a little older. They have been talking about it all night, Jaden even remembered it from last year when I told him we were going this morning.


Hearing Baylee say "punkin" has got to be one of the cutest things I've ever heard. She gets so excited about pumpkins, probably because that's what Tony calls her. Aubrey even enjoyed it for a few minutes, until he decided he was hungry. Of course, Jaden just loves to be anywhere that Luke and Matthew are. They had fun chasing each other around. Then there is Caleb. He is just so adorable that I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. He was having so much fun sitting there in the pumpkins watching the other kids running around. Luckily, he and Aubrey are still immobile. The four other kids vs. the four adults was quite a challenge. Especially trying to get everyone to smile and look at the camera at the same time. These are crazy times for our family! Chaos and hard work everyday, but well worth it. Thanks to Nate and Anne for letting us tag along, we had a great time!