Happy 17th Anniversary

Today marks our 17th wedding anniversary. Best decision ever for both of us! Here's to MANY more wonderful years together ....

Merry Christmas!!

Once the boys were able to complete our advent calendar ... there was PURE excitement in our house. This advent calendar was the one that me and my siblings used growing up. It's such a treasure to me.




On Christmas Eve, we had our own family Christmas time. We read the story of Christ's birth from Luke, sang some Christmas songs, and then exchanged family gifts. N is VERY excited about his temples calendar.


T, wearing his new pj's, helps us put out the Christmas stockings. He was SO excited about Santa coming. He and J left notes, cookies, hot chocolate and carrots & celery (for the reindeers). T finally fell asleep, but woke up about 20 minutes later in a complete daze ... wondering if it was Christmas yet. No ... he wasn't excited AT ALL!?!
THIS lego mail airplane was on the TOP of his list and Santa brought it for him. Mom put it together for him. He didn't want to stop playing with it even for a second ... even to take this picture!

B got a HUGE box of random legos -- top of his wish list. Now he just has to hide it from T!

Here's G whipping up our traditional ebleskivers ... a Danish pancake ... for our breakfast. So yummy!

Later, some of our extended family came over for dinner and a cousin's gift exchange. Here's J excitedly opening his gift from his cousin.

COUSINS!

Our day started so early at O'dark thirty. J & T came blazin' in our bedroom at 6:15AM. They watched cartoons for about 30 minutes before we woke up N & B. We had a great day, but LONG day. We enjoyed visiting with our family all day. What a great Christmas!!

Winter Festivities

It's been a fun-packed week for the boys at the elementary school. T had his kindergarten performance on Tuesday night. His class each were dressed like Rudolph, and looked adorable.
They sang so good and we parents loved it (of course!)

T with his buddies after the performance

T's winter party was Thursday. I came in and helped at the table with all of the glue and glitter. They decorated these snowflake hats.Here is the book that T got at the wrapped Christmas gift book exchange. Actually, he first opened this really PINK princess Cinderella pop-up book and about cried. He exchanged it with a girl who really, really wanted it and both were very happy with the results. Phew!

On Friday, the 18th, I came in to help with J's Winter party. They made gingerbread houses along with their Kindergarten buddies. It was CROWDED, and ... loud ... and smelled intensely of sugar! But, they had fun!

Here's J's finished house. I'm glad I could spend that time with him. Also, I was able to bring his house safely home. He rode his bike to school ... and that would have been a disaster!

As for N&B, not much of this stuff at the Middle School. They are just happy to have 2 weeks off of school. I can't believe that Christmas is fast approaching!!!

Celebrating G's Birthday --Gionz Style

This post is a bit late -- just trying to catch up a bit. One of the things our family likes to do to celebrate birthdays is to go to Leatherby's. We celebrated G's 39th birthday a day early having ice cream for dinner. It was probably THE coldest day of the year on that day, too! The ice cream is always SO yummy.

Both J & N got milkshakes -- Cookie's 'n cream for J and Mint Chip for N.

T also got a cookies 'n cream milkshake -- he was a happy camper

B is happy with his cookies 'n cream ice cream ... plain

Here's G getting ready to blow out his ONE candle on his favorite type of ice cream: peppermint with hot fudge and a side of malt. We all enjoyed our ice cream and spending time together celebrating Dad's birthday.

It SNOWED in CA!

Last Sunday night, early Monday morning, it snowed here in northern California. I know this is hardly anything to you who actually live areas where it REALLY snows, but this is an abnormal occurrence here ... very abnormal! We are not used to this cold weather. Yes, we are spoiled ...

J with his very small snow ball -- he's still waking up, but didn't want to miss out on his chance to make one!

B armed with his snowball on his way to the bus-stop. Yes, notice the shorts: a TRUE Californian! I couldn't convince him to change out of his shorts.

We've moved on from the bit of snow to buckets and buckets AND buckets of rain this week. Definitely feels like winter!

Happy Birthday, G!!

Happy Birthday, G!! You are THE best husband and dad ever!! We are so blessed to be a family together. Thank you for ALL you do for our family. You are a wonderful example for us. Hope your day is a wonderful one. We LOVE you!

Finally!! I won Morty!

After almost 5 years of being in my Bunko group, I FINALLY won the Morty basket. This is the grand prize of the night. Each person brings a small prize to put into the basket. During the game, if someone rolls all 2's, then they take possession of Morty, the little stuffed monkey. During the game, Morty is tossed all over, switching "owner's". The last person in possession of Morty after the final bell wins the Morty basket ... which was me! The funny thing is, I actually forgot that I had possession of Morty during the last round. Weird. So, I was able to keep all of the wonderful loot pictured above, and I'm very thankful. I love it all! This time, there was no theme for the basket. It was "anything goes".

I just LOVE my bunko group. We have so much fun visiting the whole night. We laugh so much! My side started to hurt from the laughter. We have built great friendships over the years, and I am so grateful. Now, I just need to get a current picture of our group! We don't think about it because we are having so much fun talking and laughing.

Run to Feed the Hungry -- Sacramento

Early on Thanksgiving, N & I drove down to Sacramento to meet my sister, L and her daughter and boyfriend for the "Run to Feed the Hungry". N has come to 2 of my 5K's before, but this time I got him to run with me. B was supposed to come, but wasn't feeling well.
N was a bit nervous about the race -- he shouldn't have been -- it was a MOB of people -- he COULDN'T run if he wanted to!

Here is N after the finish line at the race. We got separated early on and there was no way to find each other until the finish line. A bit disappointing race to try out those running legs!

OK, I KNOW this was for a good cause and it was amazing to see that 31,000 people came out to support a very good cause in our community, HOWEVER, it was the most frustrating "run" (if you can call it that). It was more like an obstacle course. I managed to jog most of it ... unless I got really caught behind people. It was like a barricade sometimes ... really. TOO many people crammed into these small streets. I want to bring N to another 5K soon so that he can really get a sense of it without the mob. It took us a long time to get out of the parking garage. G had to start my dinner rolls for Thanksgiving dinner since it took us longer than we had planned. We had a great Thanksgiving ... I'll have to post more about that later.

T's Soccer Wrapped Up

T's 1st soccer season wrapped up last weekend. He LOVED playing soccer with his friends and had such a wonderful coach. All smiles!

I love this picture of T ... happily running out to position during his last game!


Here is T with coach Andre, who stepped up to coach this team of 5 year olds even though he does not have a child on the team! He was great with the kids. Oh, the big frog is Flippity, T's Kindergarten class mascot. He got to spend the weekend with us a few weeks ago.

T loved playing with his buddies. So fun!

After the last game, we met the team at Round Table pizza. After eating, the coach handed out trophies and certificates. T earned the "Most Improved" player. He did come along way this season, and loved it. He's a little sad that there is no more soccer for a while. I'm happy to have our Saturdays back! Oh, btw, T's trophy was broken by accident w/in 24 hours of receiving it. He took it pretty well, especially considering that he wasn't the one to break it. What a trooper!

Soccer is ALMOST Done

On Monday night, we met J's team over at a gym. There, they played an indoor soccer game -- kids against parents. I brought G's sneakers so he could join in the game. B and T played for a while, too. They had a blast! After, the kids enjoyed pizza, soda, and receiving their trophies. I love this picture above. J is receiving his trophy from his coach, who was awesome, btw. Coach called J his little Professor .. always sharing tidbits of trivia and information. He also said that J was a hard-working player, who improved over the season.

J has really enjoyed this year. He wasn't sure about having a new coach, but it worked out very well. He had some great hustle out there on the field this year!

T has LOVED playing soccer. He did really good as goalie. He wasn't afraid to grab that ball! He was with some of his dearest friends and really began to grasp the game. He had a wonderful coach, too.

I'm glad that the boys had great teams & coaches this year. It has been a positive experience. With that said, I am also looking forward to no more practices and games ... having our Saturdays back! AMEN!

Apple Hill 2009

The boys were off of school today (Veteran's Day), and the weather was good ... and we needed something to do ... so, we took off and headed over to Apple Hill. It was really nice because it wasn't as crowded as a normal weekend would be. We went to a few farms and really enjoyed ourselves.

the things I make the boys do for pictures! J looks REALLY thrilled!

We HAD to get apples with warm, gooey caramel. This is one of my favorite things to get at Apple Hill.

We saw this apple orchard near where we parked at one of the farms. We wanted to explore a bit. The boys found sound rotting pumpkins and HAD to poke them. Whatever. They had fun and I really didn't care. We just enjoyed being out with each other.

We stopped in at the Fudge Factory. We didn't end up buying anything there since we already bought some fudge at another farm. We just wanted to see what they had.

We also made sure we left with 2 gallons of pressed apple juice. So good! Lots of the food looked good there, however, there were long lines for that. So we just walked around and looked at all of the crafts, treats, and beautiful scenery. Then, we stopped at In-N-Out burger as we headed home. The boys were also glad to have the rest of the late afternoon to relax. It turned out to be a great afternoon together.