Tatum gets a Green Gecko

Every Friday morning, all the classes sit down in the courtyard of the school and have Friday Flag, where they say the Pledge of Allegiance, hear updates and school info, and lastly, a number of kids receive an award, the Green Gecko!  You can earn a Green Gecko award by doing good deeds at school, helping out a friend, or being an excellent classmate.  And Tatum was chosen!  Here she is with a group of other's receiving their Green Gecko.  It's hard to see her since she's one of the youngest.

And here she is with her award!  Every week the prize is different and I can't remember what she won, but it's usually a free dinner at a nearby restaurant.  Congrats to my star student and thoughtful kid!

Sky High Trampoline fun!

One day during Thanksgiving break, we were looking for something to do.  So we headed over to a new trampoline place called Sky High.  The kids loved it!

There are so many trampoline pads and lots of fun!

Look at these jumpers!

I didn't get a picture but we also ran into Tatum's friends Ellie and Grace and had fun with them as well.

They also had a foam block pit that you could swing or flip into.  They loved it!

And after hitting the arcade games, Tatum winning a stuffed toy out of the crane machine, and each of them getting a quarter for the candy machines, we called it a day.  We'll definitely be coming back here again!

Ty's first soccer team

Ty started his first soccer class back in September and he was so excited.  They got orange shirts and they were the Hoppers team.  So cute!

 

Ty was also so excited to have his bro Blaine in his class.  Look at these characters!

And after 8 weeks, the team received medals and graduated up to the Jack Rabbits team. 

 

Congratulations!

Look at these crazy boys, so excited!

 

Thanksgiving in Phoenix!

Garrett's step dad Jerry has three kids that all live close to one another in Scottsdale, AZ.  This is the first year Jerry and Garrett's mom Nadine decided to head out for Thanksgiving so they invited us to drive out and join them.  We got in late on Wednesday after a long drive but were excited to see everyone, have a delicious meal and enjoy smores!

Papa Jerry and Grandma Dini decided to bring out their Christmas presents to everyone and save on shipping.  Here are all the grand kids, minus Vanessa who was rushing over from a friends house and Skyla who was already asleep.  From the left, Creed, Colin, Ty, Tatum, Ian, and Emma.

We were so excited and happy to get to see Papa Jerry and Grandma Dini.  We usually get to see them at least once but this was an added bonus!  And we'll see them again in February in Vegas!

We stayed at a hotel around the corner which was spacious and had plenty of beds for us.  Two queens and a fold out couch.  It also had complementary breakfast which we enjoyed every morning.  On Thanksgiving, we headed over to Ann's to prep the appetizers that were being served at noon, and then help with the dinner which was at 5.  We grabbed some football downtime in between.

Ann's boys have an awesome play room upstairs with every toy imaginable!  Ty was in heaven!

Mom and I in front of their tree.  This was also when we were experimenting with our phone cameras, hence all the tree photos....

My little Chubba.  I love him!

It was a long, fun day but you can see that everyone got quite tired of waiting for dinner. :)

But then it was dishing up time!  Everyone enjoyed all the dishes, from turkey and roast beef, to broccoli and mac n cheese.  Yum!!!

The next day, Friday, we hit Kohls and all it's craziness, grabbed sandwiches for lunch and then some of the gang went to the local casino while Grandma Dini, Grandma Judy and I took Colin, Creed, Tatum and Ty to see Frozen.  We all loved it!  And then when we were all home, just going to sleep, (actually the lights were already out) Tatum said her tooth fell out.  I didn't believe her at first since she tends to tease, but it did!  Here she is with her tooth!  And luckily, she planned ahead and brought her tooth pillow, which she put the tooth in and put under her pillow.  We wondered if the tooth fairy would find us in the hotel but she did and the next morning Tatum's tooth was gone but $2 were left in it's place!

All in all, a wonderful vacation and time with family!!!

Friendsgiving

This year we decided to have a little gathering at our house for an early Thanksgiving feast.  Some friends don't have much of a Thanksgiving celebration, some don't have family nearby, and some were heading out of town so it felt like a perfect way to get together for a delicious feast of all our favorites.  Todd and his two kids Kaitlin and Jarred brought dinner rolls and enjoyed playing games like Uno and puppet show.  Thank goodness the kids had some friends to play with, they loved it.

Jacquie and Shauna came of course, and Jacquie's parents were suppose to make it too but they were driving down from South Dakota and got stuck in a really bad storm in Texas.  They finally made it to town a day or two later but we really missed seeing them.  Jacquie brought lots of delicious dishes including sweet potatoes, stuffing and cranberries.  Shauna was our dessert girl and she brought apple pie bars, pecan bars, pumpkin bars and a special cookie bar for my birthday.  Yum!

And of course Grandma, Garrett and I were in attendance.  Grandma brought a veggie platter, creamed corn and some wine and we provided the turkey, gravy and mashed potatoes. 

This was also when we were going to head across the street to a cute bridge to take some family pictures.  Shauna is our photographer every year with her wonderful camera and awesome photographer eye.  But getting everyone motivated to go across the street (mainly since this was Sunday and football was on) was proving impossible so Shauna suggested we take some pics in our own backyard.  Here are some really cute feet. :)

These two look so similar, it's scary.  I think they both look very much like Grandma Dini and a little Irish which comes from both sides.  Tatum absolutely loves her little brother and is always so caring and helpful with him.  I can't say the same for him but he does love his sister and for the most part lets her boss him around. 

Shauna said our old walls would make for a pretty good backdrop and she was right!

 

I had just bought this little white bench at a garage sale for $10 and Garrett painted and sanded it a bit.  It made for a great place to pose with our garden in the back.

 

My sweet babies

and silly babies.

 

And my wonderful mom.  We're so blessed to have her living close by.  The kids ask every day if they get to see Grandma.  I always envied people that had their grandparents so close by since mine lived states away.  Our kids are very lucky.

 

Our sweet family.

 

And the best photographer, GM and friend.  Love ya girl!

Some cute moments in life

So like I said in the title, these are just a collection of pictures from random moments over the last few weeks, but fun and cute all the same.  Here's one of Grandma and Tatum at our favorite winery.  As I type this, I realize I have a lot of posts about this winery.  We've been coming here since we moved to Poway about 4 years ago, but we come much more often now that Grandma lives less than a mile down the road.  We love to go on Sunday to hear the live music and get outside.  The winery has beautiful grounds as well as shops to enjoy and a large field where the kids play.  Lately, it's been Grandma, Tatum and I.  Tatum enjoys ordering a smoothie at the little cafe and likes to check in with the stray cat that lives there.

We obviously find ourselves funny and enjoy our wine time. :)

And here's Ty's silly puddy debacle.  He left his silly puddy on his dresser next to his bed, or at least that's where I thought he left it.  But in the morning, it was everywhere.  On his jammies, his sheets, his blankie and bear.  Ugh!  It stained the sheets but I was able to get most of it off after I froze the items.  But the bear was in trouble.  I had to cut it out of his fur which caused me to cut him open.  I stitched him up but used red thread so we can always remember his run in with silly puddy.  The jammies went in the trash. :)

We were on our way out of town when my neighbor called and asked if we'd gone to the Poway Rodeo.  I said we had and he said, " I can see that.  Tatum's picture made the 92064 magazine!"  Here's her large picture in the magazine, pretty cool!  Too bad we had no idea this was taken.  We all actually had a fun time, despite what Tatum's expression looks like in this photo. :)

On Veteran's Day, I pulled out Garrett's military picture and had the kids pose with it.  Our very own important veteran!

Leanne is so wonderful to us and gives us all of Isaac's hand me downs.  We're so grateful to her because she has wonderful taste in clothes, and she saves us lots of money.  Ty gets so excited to get the bags of clothes and as we pull everything out, he likes to try on some of his favorite pieces.  Garrett and I loved his choices here, a very strange combination of boat shoes, argyle socks, cut off shorts and a wife beater tank top. :)  And not to mention a really cool expression. :)

It's my birthday!  Garrett had to work at 6 am on my birthday but that didn't stop him from running out to get me a delicious latte, breakfast pita and cake pops from Starbucks, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  Tatum also wanted to be woken up at this crazy hour to see me get my wonderful presents.

Ty was happy to enjoy my cake pops with me. :)

One night our neighbor Paige and her daughter Phoebe and son Toby came over for dinner.  Here they all are enjoying a movie.  So cute!

Our sweetest pets.  Cali is 9 and Harley is almost 11.  I can't believe it.  I remember when both were just babies and when they first met.  Cali hissed at Harley for days and then something changed and he's been her best friend ever since.  He likes to play like he could care less for her, as he's looking in this photo, but I think he appreciates her cleaning his head and snuggling up into him and keeping him warm.  The two are a sweet pair.