Christmas Eve

we began a new Christmas Eve tradition at our house this year. the kids asked if they could each open a gift on Christmas Eve. As this was a tradition in my family (starting when we were a little older...it was usually a new outfit to wear on Christmas Eve) I thought it was a good idea. They had been reading the tags on the presents under the tree trying to guess what was in each one. They all decided to open a gift from each other.

ella was thrilled with her high school musical gabriella and troy singing barbies from andrew...

andrew got right to work on his pokemon guess who game from ella...

christopher immediately stuck his nose into his new book from andrew

(diary of a whimpy kid #1)...

and john-john loved his new set of trucks ("chucks")....

they were so happy with their gifts and it gave them something special to do on Christmas Eve afternoon as chris and i were getting the house and brunch ready for the mid-morning crowd at our house on

christmas day.

then we were off to mass and dinner at grandma and grandpa's house....

might i add....this picture was actually taken after mass (we came back home to light our luminaries and grab the things we were taking to grandmas) so christopher had already changed into his comfy and warm clothes, he had been dressed up for mass along with the rest of us!

there's nothing better than

making homemade Christmas cards with your awesomely artistic uncle.
especially when you're a 5 year old girl who spends most of her time at her craft table making darling pictures, books, games...all sorts of sweet things she comes up with.

Last weekend the 3 older kids spent the night at grandma & grandpa's house. when chris went to pick them up ella and uncle greg were making christmas cards together. he would draw the picture and she would color it in.
so cute and so fun for ella to have such a sweet uncle to sit down and spend time with her in this way. memories in the making, just makes you smile.

4th grade family turkey project

about a month ago christopher came home with an assignment that involved the whole family. he had a file folder with a big turkey drawn in black marker.

as a family we were to decorate the turkey with whatever we wanted. we decided to use all different colored beans (chris' idea) and do a big 'ssj' (my idea) in the middle. so, we all sat at the table and glued up this turkey with all these wonderful beans. we had most of them but chris did run up to sprouts for the orange and yellow ones we used for the feathers.

it took awhile but we all enjoyed decorating the turkey. when we were done the kids went out to play and i started gluing the black beans around it - i'm a sucker for details (sometimes!) - and christopher ran back inside for a drink of water and offered to help me with it. he got the quick lecture of the importance of details and always doing your best work. he agreed and patiently helped me glue the black beans all around the turkey, and what a difference they made.

we had a very nice thanksgiving. the highlight was both the boys playing in the annual pitch card game tournament (and ella holding chris' hand of cards for him - every game he played - she had to be a part of it too!). a late night but they had so much fun...we were in our pjs the next day until @ 2pm playing more pitch and building bunk bed forts - you gotta love lazy days!

ballet under the stars

i've always wanted to go to the 'Ballet Under the Stars' performance that Ballet Arizona puts on at some of the local parks. we finally made it this year to the show they had at Indian Steele Park. Brian and Lizzy from across the street joined us.

ella and i made rice crispy treats and put them on popsicle sticks so we wouldn't all have sticky fingers...

the kids were so excited to lay on the big comforter we brought - there is something about being at the park at night that's so relaxing, especially since its finally been cooling off at night. they all enjoyed watching the ballet show...

John was especially intrigued...

by the end of the performance, the girls and john were up dancing and having a great time on the cement slab next to where we were sitting...

Sunday Sliders

i've been meaning to make sliders for awhile now, and since I had just bought that big bag of rolls from costco i decided it was time.

so we had them for dinner sunday night along with homemade french fries (always an exciting treat) and salad - to off set the fries.

they cooked so quickly on the grill, dinner was ready in a flash. and we were able to make so many of them that we had them again tonight - always a plus to be able to just reheat a meal, especially on a busy school night.

so another quick and easy meal idea, i'll have to post some actual recipes soon with some actual ingredients and instructions!

chicken teriyaki on stick

those skewers we found in the drawer have sure come in handy....
Chris grilled chicken tenders (we like the all natural ones from Sprouts - which go on sale regularly) on a stick for dinner and they were a big hit. He brushed some good teriyaki sauce on them and we poured extra on each plate to dip into. We served them with rice (and curry - I'll post that recipe soon) and they were easy and delicious!

Happy Friday!

still waiting...

for pictures from the Halloween parade at school, that is. I took my brother's camera and he hasn't had the chance to get them to me yet - busy college freshman that he is. mine broke right as i was starting this blog, so i've only been using Chris' iphone:( (and he couldn't make it to the parade!)

but i do have a few from Halloween...

At first John did not want to be in the picture....

then we realized that he was scared of baby Ava's duck hood piece of her costume, and once we pulled it off he was all smiles....

The big thrill this year was going trick-or-treating at both Christopher's 4th grade teachers' houses who gave out full size candy bars, homework passes, and gold dollar coins.

the sun had gotten to this pumpkin by the time i took this picture...it did look cool when it was lit up, too bad i wasn't able to get a picture of that - iphones don't have flashes!!

oh, and we did have a last minute costume change as john john refused to wear his lion costume (it too had a hood) and since he had been wearing that football jersey shirt we just threw some pants on him and lines under his eyes and he was all set - easiest costume ever!

Halloween sneak peek...

Today is the Halloween parade at school for k-3rd grade. So, Ella and Andrew get to dress up for it and Christopher is out for the first time (he gets to look forward to next year when they study the saints and the 5th graders dress up as their chosen saint for the parade - very big moment to look forward to!).

I've been working hard on their costumes this week. From the get go Ella has said she wanted to be a St. Mary's (high school)/SS. Simon & Jude (grade school) cheerleader. Ask her what she wants to be when she grows up and she'll say 'a St. Mary's cheerleader'. I finally convinced her a few weeks ago to just go with SSJ for the parade (and purpose of simplifying the shirt). Her best friend Elise decided to be an SSJ cheerleader with her (is this the start of many years of dressing alike?...I remember doing this with my best friend growing up and we loved it...it will be so cute & fun if Ella & Elise do this too).

I was so happy with the way her costume turned out. I took pictures last night when it was all finally completed....

Andrew also came up with a great idea this year...He is going to be 'Ash' - the main boy in the Pokemon series, he reads the 'Pokemon' books and trades the cards with his friends. It has been the big thing this year. The boys will sit down (and Ella too - she knows all about Pokemon cards from them) and trade cards and talk about their different evolutions and powers and it is a nice quite activity that they can sit for hours and talk about.
I finished Andrew's costume last night too...

pictures from the parade will be posted tomorrow....

Happy 8th Birthday, Andrew!!!

My second born is now a big 8 year old!! My outgoing, funny, little Andrew is now a big 8. I can't believe it. This picture was taken over the summer and it just captures Andrew's fun loving personality. He has really outdone himself already at school this year - academically, socially, spiritually and we could not be more proud of him.
We drove back from our little California trip on Andrew's 8th birthday, pulled right up to the house and had the entire family (grandparents and 7 uncles) over for dinner. We did not even unpack the car. It has become a tradition to have the grandparents and 'uncles' over on the kids' birthdays, so they always look forward to it...

Chris picked up Carolina's (as requested by Andrew...we tried to talk him into Pei Wei but he had his mind made up) and we had a nice little celebration. Nani made him his cake(s) since we were en route from Cali...

Miss helpful Ella put the candles on the cake(s)...

and John now calls candles "Happy"....
I love this picture of Andrew and Christopher from our trip. I didn't realize it right away when I first looked at the picture, but they are totally in sync - I mean just look at their arms, legs, heads...it looks as if they are doing some kind of cha-cha slide dance they spent hours practicing when in fact it was totally unplanned. It just makes me think of how close they are and what great friends they are. Don't get me wrong they do fight, and fight often but they are also very close, and I hope they will always be.

And I had to include these pictures from Disneyland this summer as Andrew has always been our major Star Wars fan (this started at a very young age due to our neighbors passing down a bunch of Star Wars action figures to us). All three kids got picked over the summer for the Jedi Training Academy Camp Show at Disneyland...

Thanks, mom, for making the cakes. And thanks to everyone who came over and made the birthday boy feel so special - he couldn't wait to see all of you!
Andrew - here's to a great year as an 8 year old...we love you!