Christmas Eve at Grammy and Papas House

Every Year we go to Christmas Eve Mass at St. Pauls.  It is the childrens Mass and we love it because the kids put on the Nativity Play during Mass.  Some years my kids have been in it, but we officially go to St. Mary's now, so this year we were content to watch our friends.

Ben was a reader and Ethan was a shepherd

My mom got all of the kids monkeys for Christmas.

Please read the next post "Zoo Lights"  to find out why this was so funny!

Sam had just finished telling the story!

We always take the kids to the dollar store and let them pick out gifts for eachother, Grammy and Papa and us (mom and dad).  They really LOVE this tradition!  They wrap their own gifts to everyone and they cant wait to give them to us on Christmas Eve.  Mom and Dad do such a good job of being excited about their snow globes and coffee mugs!

They also get to open their gifts from Grammy and Papa!

They usually get their favorite gifts from them!

Papa with one of his two coffee mugs, one from Max and one from Lucy!

Max got Pancho a Barbie Doll, because Pancho always teases him about liking Barbies and Hannah Montana (which he DOES NOT by the way).  This was Max's way of getting back at his Dad.

I got lots of Oregon stuff from the kids (my gifts were not from the dollar store)  Pancho took them REAL shopping for me :)  I like the dollar store gifts too though!

When we got home, we put the kids to bed and then Santa came!

We left out cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer and Sant aleft each one of the kids a note and a candy cane with a bell.

Zoo Lights!!!

On Tuesday, the kids and I piled into my parents van and headed up to Portland with the Dacars to go see the zoo lights.  We had a blast with our good friends.  The lights were absolutely beautiful.  Unfortunately, Pancho was working in LA but he got lots of phone calls and texts from us that night due to an incident that he missed at the zoo (and he would have LOVED!)  keep reading . . .

The kids and I in front of the gingerbread house.

The Dacars looking a little bit cold in their family photo

The lights were so pretty!

Ellie, Max, Lucy and Sam

Lucy was all bundled up for the cold weather

My three cuties  . . . I love them

The whole crowd on the train ride.

It was so much fun to ride through the zoo looking at the lights.

OK, so the whole evening was going so well until "the incident".  The kids were so enthralled with this monkey that was sitting right in front of our kids, entertaining them.  I was taking pictures and thinking, "this is so cute".  Then the monkey started doing something that wasn't so cute.  When Sam told the story at our Christmas Eve dinner, he said "The Monkey took out his weiner and started shaking it".  Yes, the monkey competed the whole deed right in front of us (and more!  ask me later).  I was COMPLETELY TRAUMATIZED by this!!!  I am not an animal or nature lover as it is.  The kids were laughing and pointing at the funny monkey and Liz and Doug were in hysterics (at the monkey incident and at my reaction)!  The whole crowd was completely grossed out and trying to shuffle their kids out of there as fast as they could.  Sam has not stopped telling the story as many times as he can at every Christmas event that we go to.  At least it has given us hours of entertainment, jokes and laughing.  We were just so sad tht Pancho missed it, because he would have loved it!

This animal was a little bit safer to pose for the camera with!

The kids

Me and my boys!

Liz and I, best friends since college!

Baking Cookies at Grammy's

I am so thankful to my mom for having my kids over to her house to bake cookies.  Pancho is out of town until the 23rd and I didnt know how I was going to get all of the wrapping done (I hadn't done ANY at that point).  The kids LOVE baking and decorating cookies, especially at Grammy's house.  They were very excited to go over there and get started.

she had everything all ready and organized for them

some of the finished products . . . YUM!

Max showing off his Rose Bowl Cookie

Sam with his "O" cookie

Lucy, wishing there was pink frosting,

but perfectly happy with her Christmas tree.

hard at work

By the way, I wrapped gifts for about 3 1/2 hours and I got it all done!!!!!

Now I am just trying to stay away from those cookies :)

Max's Team Won The Tournament (kind of)

Max played so well this weekend, we were really proud of him!

His team beat the first three teams that they played,  then they played one of the teams that they had already played (and beat) again.  This time they lost.  So technically each team had one once and lost once.  Unfortunately the real win went to the other team, but Max was pretty happy with his "win" and his trophy!

The team!

Muscle Pose!

I LOVE VACATION!!!!!

Just a quick update to let you know that I am LOVING every minute of my two week vacation so far.  I have already watched 3 Christmas movies snuggled up on the couch with my family (Christmas Vacation, Elf, and The Grinch the old version).  We have been drinking hot chocolate with candy canes in it at least once a day, and we have even got out some old movies of the kids when they were little!  The kids love them, and they make me very sentimental.  I cant believe that they arent my little bablies anymore!  Sam has had two sleepovers so far, he had his friend Gabe from school over last night and we have Lucas and Lauren over tonight. In fact Pancho is trying to get all 5 kids to bed as I type this, so I should probably go help him!  Now if only I can fit in some time to wrap gifts between basketball games and playing with my kids!  We are gearing up for baking cookies tomorrow!

Fun, Fun, Fun, like I said, I LOVE VACATION!!!!

Video of Lucy - OUR STAR!!!!!!

PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW!!!!!!

. . . and check out this fuzzy shaky version of Lucy's solo that my mom took.


http://sharing.theflip.com/session/52be9ebb159f96b441555052ebae5d97/video/8058933
 
Working two 14 hour work days in a row was all worth it this week when I got to see Lucy sing a solo on the big stage at our O'Hara Christmas Program.   I was sooooo proud of her.  We all were!  My Mom and Dad were sitting with me and Pancho, and we were all just beaming.  Lucy sings a lot in the car, but she has always been very shy about singing in front of any audience (even friends that come over to the house!).  So we were all shocked when she marched up on that stage and sang her heart out in front of a crowd of about 500 people!

Lucy, front and center on stage

all by herself!

They even put her name up on the big screen in our gym.

After the show . . . Lucy with her friend Ady!

In case you were wondering, Max was there too, and we are also proud of him.

He did a great job of moving his lips a little bit (not singing) and looking just thrilled to be all dressed up in a tie and standing on the stage with his class. 

Torture for a 4th grade boy!

Those of you who know my Dad will not be surprised to hear that he hired a prefessional videographer to come film his little star, but I am still waiting for the professional edited version, so I am posting this version for now.  A newer better version is still to come!

Max's Basketball Tournament

Max is playing on a Basketball team that is one step up from what we are used to.  Up to this point, he has just played on his regular class team, but now he is on a team that goes to tournaments, has "real" uniforms, and takes the game a little more seriously.  He is absolutely LOVING it.  I am trying to love it because he does :).  It is quite a time committment, especially coming right of off football, which was a HUGE time committment.  I guess this is how the sports world goes from here on out and I had better just learn to get used to whole weekends filled with hours of basketball!

This weekend we have 2 games on Saturday and 2 games on Sunday!
(Oh and did I mention that they are in a town that is 45 minutes away?)

Coach Donnie . . . screaming at the boys to DOMINATE!!!!

Just kidding, he is such a great coach, we are lucky to have him.

Max smiling big for a picture for Mom!

Max throwing the ball in.

Max's team won both games today!  They are really playing well.  Max scored a couple of baskets in each game!  I love seeing his improvement from year to year, he really loves basketball.

A Backlog of Blog!

Sorry for the run of Blog posts tonight!  There will be a prize for anyone who actually reads all of them . . . just kidding!  I have had literally NO TIME to Blog for 3 weeks.  I know how many more fun and exciting "Bloggable Fulton Moments" are coming up, so I made myself Blog as much as I could tonight!  I realize that my posts are out of order and I am absoutely sure that they are full of spelling errors, but this is the best I can do right now.  Ha ha.  Tomorrow night we are off to the O'Hara Christmas program, where Lucy will be featured singing a solo!!!!  I am so proud!  (I guess I am going to have to figure out how to upload a video now!)  We also have Max playing in a Basketball tournament this weekend . . . its another busy week!  I am so looking forward to two whole weeks of vacation!

Oregon Ducks head to the Rose Bowl!!!!

By now, I am sure that you have all heard that Oregon beat the Oregon State Beavers to go to the Rose Bowl.  It was an awesome, excellent, super exciting game!!! 

We have had 2 season tickets for years.  I always looked forward to the home duck games and the tailgating that goes along with it.  This year has been a little different though.  Max is now old enough to REALLY REALLY REALLY want to go to the games.  I, on the other hand, am usually worn out by the time the weekends come this year (its that job thing again).  This has lead us to a new tradition.  Max and Pancho have gone to most of the home games together this year.  I have actually grown to LOVE snuggling up in a warm blanket and watching the game from our Big Screen TV at home! 

Max was so excited for this game and I was really happy that Panch and Max got to experience this truly awesome game together.  What a memory they will share forever!

Max, on the field after the Big Game!

GO DUCKS!

I LOVE Oregon Football and this was truly one of the most thrilling moments!

What a spectacular win!

I cant wait for the Rose Bowl now!

(ooops!  that makes it sound like we are going. . .  I will be snuggled up in my blanket watching it at home again!)

Mom and Pancho's Birthday

Pancho's Birthday is December 10th,  my Mom's Birthday is December 15th.  As you can probably imagine, Mom and Pancho get to celebrate their Birthday's together every year!  I am usually in charge of planning a fun family event to mark the occasion.  This year, Lucy has been begging me to go to the Hult Center to watch our local Christmas Production called "A Yuletide Celebration".  It ended up being a fun thing for all of us to do together.  An added bonus was that 3 of my students were in the production too!  They were so excited to have their teacher there, and I was so proud of all of them.  They did such a great job!

All in all it was a super fun family day and it really got us all in the Christmas/Birthday Spirit!

The Birthday Kids!

Lucy and I
all dressed up to head over to the Hult Center.

I even got the boys to dress up

(and smile for a picture, thats the biggest miracle of all!)

Max took a picture of Pancho and I

The Family . . .

all dressed up and posing our best in front of the Christmas Tree at the Hult Cneter

I think this is such a great picture of Mom and Dad!

Lucy was so excited right before the show began,

the boys werent so sure about this whole thing, but the show ended up being really good.

Then it was time for some food!

Mom came up with a great idea!  We all went to Kabukis for dinner.

The kids were so entertained by the chef who chopped, flipped and lit our food on fire!!!!

They were very engrossed in the food show,

our chef was really funny and entertaining!

They also got to drink "Shirley Temples" . . . so cool!

After we finished eating, Sam made us tie his napkin on his head (the chef wore a big red chef hat) and he started throwing his forks up in the air!

He never ceases to crack us all up!

I think I see a future in this for him,

"You can get paid for throwing utensils and food in the air?"

Lucy (who idolizes her brother) wanted a napkin hat too!

Then we got in the car and drove around town looking at Christmas Lights!

This was the winner!

The day ended back at Grammy and Papas for Cake and Icecream.
What a crazy fun day!
Happy Birthday Grammy and Daddy!