HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our family & friends! We hope that however you ring in the New Year you are having fun and being safe! We are having a nice quiet (well, not so quiet) evening at home with the kids! We had an early dinner at the kids favorite restaurant, Chili's, and now are getting ready to play some games and try and stay up to ring in the New Year!!!! Cheers!

THIS IS WHAT MY PARENTS WOKE UP TO TODAY....

...their front yard flooded! This is their view from the front door. AS you can see the swings are under and so is the driveway! They won't be going anywhere anytime soon! The crazy thing is, the Sacramento River runs right thru the back of their house but it's flooding thru the front!!! Let's just pray the water recedes...as of late this afternoon it hadn't!!!

CHRISTMAS MORNING!

We all had a great Christmas weekend! After a fun night with Joe's side of the family, we headed home to find my parents, as well as my brother Lance and his girlfriend Michele and her daughter Kayla at our house! It was great having them all down for Xmas! We got up early in the morning, opened gifts, then had an awesome dinner! The kids and all of us, were thrilled that Uncle Pooh stayed the day and ate with us!!! Thanks UP!

Here they are waiting OH-SO-PATIENTLY at 5:30 am for everyone to get out of bed to see if Santa had come!!! Jake & Justin checking out their Nintendo DS that Santa brought them.... (yeah, we're a bit behind the times!!)
Joshy checking out his new desk! How did Santa know he would love it!!!
This is what happens when you leave a 3 year old alone with new markers from Santa....
Very serious about his SpongeBob being perfect! Reminds me of my Dad working and deep in concentration and his tongue hanging out!!

Daddy putting together their ESPN Shotblock Basketball Hoop from Uncle Pooh.... More goodies...
Their new Nintendo chairs from Momo & Papa. Joe keeps trying to take one from the kids! Hope Joshy picked a winner...didn't even notice that until right now!!!!

CHRISTMAS EVE...

We had a great Christmas Eve at Joe's sister Caterina's house! Her & Dave truly are the "hosts with the mosts"!! This is I believe the 4th year we've gone down to spend the afternoon with them. This year we were able to spend it with Grammy Sue, Joe's Uncle Larry & Aunt Judy, Joe's cousin Rick and his wife Melissa as well as some family friends. A great time was had by all!! I was not thinking "blog" as you will see throughtout my holiday pictures...I did not get many!! And the ones I did get are pretty random! :-))

My nephew's Matthew (who is home for a few weeks from his first year in COLLEGE) and Michael, along with one of their friends....
Joshy took off which explains why it's only Justin & Jake....
AAWWWW...Grammy Sue and her favorite Great-Grandchild Jake!!!

Me & Caterina.... nice zit on my nose!

Caterina in the kitchen getting things ready! I just LOVE her kitchen! Perfect for entertaining! LOVE this wall on the other side of the kitchen too....
The "feast". Not really a good pic, but there was SO MUCH good food...seafood.

WHAT WOULD CHRISTMAS BE WITHOUT THE BOYS PLAYING POKER WHILE THE GIRLS COOK?!?!?

Christmas Day Poker with Uncle Pooh (aka my brtoher Lance) Joshy trying to get into the action on Christmas Eve....
Christmas Eve Poker with my brother-in-law Dave and nephew Michael..... And no, that's not Joshy's brewski!!!!

PRESENT TIME!

We let the boys open up a few gifts on Friday night. Here they are opening their gifts from Papa Jerry & Grandma Shirley! Thanks to you both...we all LOVE our gifts! I can't wait to go shopping :-)))

DO YOU SEE A RESEMBLANCE???

Look closely in the background at the TV...everyone thinks Josh looks just like Ralphy from Christmas Story, minus the glasses!!!!!!!!! I personally think my nephew Christian looks JUST like Ralphy!! Sorry Rhonda...though I think Ralphy is cute!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR FAMILY & FRIENDS!

We would like to wish all of our family & friends a very Merry Christmas! We wish that we were able to spend the holidays with everyone! To those we won't be seeing you know we Love You and Miss You!

TRACK SANTA CLAUS ONLINE...FOR THE KIDDOS...

For the past few years the kids have been tracking Santa Claus online starting December 24th. Go to www.noradsanta.org and have your Mom or Dad help you get to the tracking page. It's very cool and my kids know that once he gets over about Texas they need to be in bed!!!! Merry Christmas to all my little friends!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!

You rock Uncle Brian! We all hope you have a great birthday! Have fun at dinner tonight!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FRIEND STEPH!

Happy Birthday my dear friend and fellow blogger! Hope you have a great day! Can't wait to go celebrate!

ONE OF MY FAVORITES!

We came across this picture at Grammy Sue's Sunday when we went to visit. This is one of my alltime favorite pictures of Joe & I. This was September 1992 (almost a year after we started dating) in Puerto Vallarta! Aaahhhh...young love :-))) We look so young!

SANTA....

Okay, where to begin? My kids ask me today, "Why haven't we gone to see Santa yet and tell him what we want for Christmas". Of course, we have not had the time to do so was my answer! So, we all loaded up and headed up to a little mall near where we live...never any crowds or lines to see Santa...hhmmm...wonder why!?!? On our way we were laughing about the fact that last year, same place we were heading, Santa kept passing out while the kids were trying to tell him what they wanted...literally passing out!!! Well, we walk up to Santa's station and lo and behold, guess what?? Same Santa, passed out, sound asleep passed out and didn't know we were standing there, and the Elf no where to be found.... Finally the "Elf" walked up after Santa tells us he went to refill his soda...Must to the kids surprise it was not a cute little girl with a green hat and tights---this elf was wearing a do rag and G Unit hat on and had more bling than P. Diddy! Quite comical! The kids are afraid to go up to Santa whose head is bobbing up and down and Joe & I are laughing and just can't belive it! Fianlly, after confusing G Unit about getting a picture, our sweet little friend Mikayla (who went along with us) finally went up to Santa for her picture. After sitting there for at least 5 minutes while Mr. G tried to take a picture, I finally just took one with my own camera...and at this point Santa had STILL not asked her what she wanted for Xmas or said one word to her! All the while, Mr. G Unit had given up on the picture of I was going to pay 20 bucks for and was on his cell phone chatting....It was just so comical! Santa didn't even say one word until like five minutes after the kids were done and we were talking to some family we ran into and Santa busts out with a hearty "Ho-Ho-Ho"! So freakin' bizarre! Even Joshy didn't want anything to do with him!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE POOH!

Today is my baby brother Lance's birthday! I know it's been the never ending birthday weekend! Hope you have a great day...maybe take the day off?? Have a good dinner with Michele! See you Sunday!! :-)))

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON!

Today is Joe's younger brother Jason's birthday! Hope you have a great day and had a great weekend!

JAKE'S KINDERGARTEN PERFORMANCE

All the Kindergarten classes did a holiday performance on Friday at Jake's school! It was so cute watching all the kids sing! Unlike his Dad & big brother, Jake does not like to be on stage! He was very cute and all the kids made(??) matching scarves to wear for their performance. Daddy Joe played the guitar for the kids to keep them in tune!!

Jake & Daddy Joe..... Joe warming up before....
Jake...in the middle....
All five classes. Jake is off to the far left. If you look closely in the middle you will see Miss Lexi!! Don't they look adorable!

RANDOM PICTURE OF THE DAY

JUSTIN'S FIRST...AND LAST...BAND PERFORMANCE

Justin had his very first Winter Band Performance last night at the school. All the kids did an awesome job playing their instrument and then they san a song. Justin was quite his father on stage singing. Cracks me up! Look how handsome he looks all dressed up! They had to wear long pants and a buttonup shirt. I love it when my kids wear something other than basketball clothes! Of course it was a fight getting him to put the shirt on....and it certainly didn't help when we were walking out the door and Jake tells Justin he "looks like a nerd". Nice, huh!?!?!? Justin wants to quit after XMas break (still in negotiations with mom & dad) I wish he would stick with it but he's decided it's not his thing (though he's really good!) and doesn't like missing class!! Bryan, Wolfie, & Justin being silly 5th graders!
During one song all the Clarinet players had to stand up and play. How cute is this!?!?!
Being goofy....

CHRISTMAS PARTY!

This past Sunday our good friends Julie & Jun hosted a Christmas Party at their house for all the kids! It was a great time and the kids were thrilled when Santa showed up with goodies for them! Another fun night with our friends!

The three boys....
Justin.....

Joshy waited SO patiently for Santa to call his name...he must've waited thru at least 45 kids before his name was called!! Jakey.....
And last but not least my biggest boy Daddy Joe....

'TIS THE SEASON!

I have so much to post, but our week has been absolutely crazy busy! Between Christmas Parties, Functions, School Parties and Recitals, everyday life stuff and winding down school before the kids 3 week break, I just have not even had 5 minutes to blog! And, I'm missing it!!! So stay tuned for some posts hopefully later today!!!

VERY SAD DAY.....

My mom called today to tell us that her beloved dog Winnie has gone to Doggie Heaven ;-((( I think my mom had Winnie for at least 10 years ans she was at least 2 when she got her. Winnie was a sweet little dog but recently was getting sicker by the day. Momo brought Winnie with her a ffew weeks ago when she came to visit, so I'm happy we all got to see her one last time very recently! We will miss Winnie...and I know my Mom with miss her very much!

FINALLY!! WE GOT OUR TREE DECORATED!

Finally tonight we had a chance to DECORATE our tree! The tree has been up for almost a week, but we have been so busy and gone each night that tonight we were finally able to do it! Actually, the kids put all the ornaments on by themselves! They did a great job, and other than Joshy putting about 10 on each branch...it looks great!
Joshy hasn't sat or been this quiet for any amount of time in ages!!! He even put his red "Christmas" jammies on to decorate!
hhHmmmm...I'll update you tomorrow on how many ornaments Cheetoh chews up.....

RANDOM PICTURE OF THE DAY

LOVE THIS PIC!

We took the boys to the UCD Arboretuem yesterday to take their Xmas pics....trying to get all three to smile was fun! Took this one as we were leaving...for some reason I just love it!

RANDOM PICTURE OF THE DAY