Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a very
Merry Christmas!

Traditions

This year we've kept true to a few of our holiday traditions and we might of even created a few new ones.

Hunting for that perfect tree was on our list of continued traditions. 

While hunting, Santa made an appearance which made my childrens' day.

Ashton yelled, "Santa!" the entire time we searched as the carolers and Caitlyn sang, Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Fun tradition! 

A new tradition on our list was the Preschool/Church Christmas Pageant.

This one might only be on our list of holiday faves for the next few years... until all our children grow out of it, I guess. Their rendition of Angels We Have Heard on High was music to my ears and the chorus gave me and everyone else in the audience a good chuckle!

 Chex mix was a must! This year, I made no short of 30 batches. Those that made it to the sweater party got a very yummy party favor.

 Cookie decorating was squeezed in last minute with a lot smaller of a crowd than usual.  Caitlyn, 38 weeks pregnant-Cocia Ksavera, Babcia, Ashton and I decorated our hearts out of 6 dozen holiday cut outs...

and when Dad was upstairs, he totally missed out on Santa's very quick visit to our house.  While decorating cookies, Cocia Ksavera caught a glimpse of Santa through our back window, Caitlyn jumped outta her chair and ran to the other, bigger window to see him, he peeked in at her, waved, and gave a hardy, 'ho ho ho!'

Caitlyn, Ashton, and I went to every single window in the house to see if we could see him fly away on his sleigh.  We actually did find lights in the sky that looked just like Santa and his Reindeer and we watched them until we couldn't see them anymore.

Each of the kids have countdown chains in their bedrooms and in the kitchen is a special count down for Jesus' birthday, so far Jesus' birthday countdown cake has 21 candles on it.

4 more days!

This Christmas is my favorite so far... and it's not even here yet.

♥

Naughty or Nice?

My children were definitely on the NICE list!  There was no one in line to see Santa so we got to sit and talk with him for a while. Surprisingly, Caitlyn shared her list with Santa. Ashton was somewhat shy, but after he ate his entire candy cane in record time, he had the courage to talk to him. He kept trying to go back up to Santa while lifting his shirt and saying, "belly button!" 

PRECIOUS! 

Sweater Party 2010

Appropriately dressed for the 'Ugly Sweater Party',

but my kids were far from... 'ugly'!

In fact I'd say they were pretty darn adorable.

 Posing for next year's invitation.

 This year we posed for a group shot.

It wouldn't be an Ugly Sweater blog post without the collage.

This year, a lot of holiday cheer was shared and we all looked so good sharing it. Thanks for another fun year.  Although I was grunting and groaning during the preparations for this annual event... (and afterwards while steam cleaning my carpets)... We'll definitely be doing it again next year.

Homecoming

Really...

this is what we came home to...

a 50 degree temperature difference.

The kids loved it, but it made me skip the annual thanksgiving turkey trot. 

The snow was great for the tenth annual Browns Point v North End Mud Bowl though.

King 5 and KLEW both showed up to report on the event

(if you get a chance, check out the coverage by clicking HERE and then click on the "thanksgiving traditions: football and family" video )

Maui

 

It took me a while to decide how to post about our 11 day vacay to Maui, Hawaii. I took over 200 pictures and each shares a memory. So here goes a list...

Our Favorite
Maui Memories

First would have to be the plane ride.  Caitlyn has been on a plane numerous times before but none that I think she can remember.  Our flight was super early in the morning so the kiddos traveled in their jammies and at the end of the flight changed into a sun dress and shorts and a muscle tee.   They traveled like champs, both taking a really long nap making it easier for Ash and I to enjoy our complimentary Mai Tais.  They were both super excited as you can see on Ashton's face.

My second favorite memory would have to be my children's smiling faces.  It's super easy to get Caitlyn's smile on camera but Ashton's a little bit of a challenge.  When we ask Ashton to smile and say cheese... this is the face we get. I'm not complaining cause it's still super cute!

Below's another attempt of catching his cute smile... a little better.

Third and fourth fave... the Beaches & Banyan Tree.

Ka'anapali Beach at Black Rock

Baby's Beach

 and Makena Beach.

♥

Mostly I loved the Banyan Tree because my children looked so darn cute hanging around it's roots.

Fifth fave... the huge icecream cones we got after our submarine ride... making my 6th fave...

The submarine ride.

 Seventh favorite memory- the Trade Winds, not only did they keep our condo cool, they blew Caitlyn's hair perfectly for this pic.

Eighth fave is how stinkin' cute my kids look in sunglasses.

Ninth favorite memory- Ashton learned to swim with only water wings... and wait for it...

Caitlyn learned to jump off the side of the pool, sink to the bottom, swim under water with her eyes open all the way to the other side of the pool without water wings or a life jacket or anything but her parent's encouragement. AMAZING!

Tenth is the fact that we were not only the Canasta King and Queen on this vacation, we also stomped our components in shuffle board.

Eleventh- our view was also AMAZING!

 Day view

 Night view

and a view of the full moon that lit the beach for mine and Ashley's walk after his 30th birthday dinner.

Which leads me to another memory... the fact that Ash and I turned the big three-oh on the island of Maui.

Thirteenth- the memory of naptime. 

Swimming plus sunshine equals the perfect nap.

Below are a few pictures of my darling children napping.

Ashton napped many times in my arms... whether it was on the beach, in a lawn chair by the pool, or even relaxing on a raft way out in the ocean.

Fourteenth great memory was floating in the Pacific Ocean with Sandy and Caitlyn when a giant sea turtle swam right up and underneath us.  Caitlyn definitely tells that story the best.

Fifteenth fave=friends.

and last is snorkeling at Black Rock

(Ash and Ian jumped off of it too)

Although only 16 memories are listed above... so many more were created.

Thanks, Maui, for so many memories!

Middle Earth

Tonight, Cocia Ksavera came over and watched Caitlyn and Ashton while Ash took me out to dinner.  After dinner, we joined Ashley's cousin's cousin, Mario, and a gazillion of his buddies to celebrate his birthday.  The evening out was fun.  When Ash and I were getting close to coming home, Mario came up to us and expressed to us how happy he was that we made it out to celebrate with him, he said something like,

"I'm so happy you guys made it out to celebrate with me tonight...

cause you guys are kind of part of that middle earth." 

Not knowing exactly what middle earth was, we all smiled and nodded... and then finally asked,

"what exactly is middle earth?"

He gladly explained to us that Ashley and I are still young enough to hang out...

but we also have children so we have to be responsible and tuck in early. 

We all were laughing at the new term and his explanation of it... middle earth. 

 

We got home around 11pm, Ash and I said good night to Ksavera, peeked in and said good night to our precious sleeping daughter, Caitlyn.  Peeked in to say good night to Ashton, who woke... so I cuddled him for the past ten minutes (while I thought up this post in my head) and tucked him back into bed.

 

I'll tell you what...

Ash and I had a wonderfully fun night out,

but I am most happy and blessed to be a part of middle earth.

Happy birthday, Mario!

And an early happy birthday to Jon and little Miss Avery Jeanne!

We love you all.

Up Next

 Caitlyn, Ashton, & I had so much fun completing this home art project.  Not only is it one of the coolest pieces of art ever... it doubles as our countdown for our upcoming vacation in Hawaii!

Each day... we'll take one loop away!

Halloween 2010

Caitlyn 'The Giraffe' and Ashton 'The Lion'

Trick or Treating at their 1st house together.

This picture defines their relationship to the T.

These two are best friends and Caitlyn loves to tell everyone.

 This year, we joined the Newgard's and Suetta's for some
Trick or Treating fun. 

 The ladies...

 ...and gentlemen (minus Buzz)

 The girls and Buzz were super fast when it came to the door to door trick or treating tradition.

Therefore leaving these two super cute animals to fend for themselves as they traveled through the rough terrain.

 I tried to limit the candy intake... but didn't do too well at it.

Yes... Ash is eating his with the wrapper on... guess he couldn't wait.

A quick pic of the family... I know Caitlyn is thinking about how she might be missing out on the best pieces of candy since she had to stop for three seconds to take this picture. She seriously ran the entire time from house to house leaving the people passing out candy with a very quick 'thank you' as she ran down their driveways.

** ♥ **

Halloween eve was spent once again at the Johnsons' House.

Mr. and Mrs Incredible had a lovely night out.

As I'm sure all of their guests did... check out the rest of the pics on FB.

The morning after... ...for our littles...

 ...and for us.

Happy Halloween 2010.