End of the year and New Years Eve fun!

For the last weekend of the year, we headed to Irvine.  Garrett got a round of golf in with Miller and some friends and the kids and I headed up to Grandma's house.  It's always fun to get up there and play with different toys.  And this one's from when I was a kid!  My cousins and I use to play Cats Eye in Colorado together, I was around 6 and they were around 20. :)  Oh, competitiveness!  Our games now aren't quite the same level but we love it all the same.  While we were up there, we headed to dinner at the Jazayeri's new home in Foothill Ranch!  I didn't get any photos but we enjoyed a fun night of games and karaoke!

Before the year was over, we headed to Rancho Bernardo Inn to catch the biggest gingerbread house!  So amazing that one woman constructed this!  We stayed for some apps and drinks and had a fun night out with Grandma!

New Years Eve, before heading to the Arce's house, we went bowling!  As you know, Garrett has bowled since he was 6 and is still in a league.  He loves it and Tatum loves it too!  But Ty, not so much.  Here he managed to get his ball over the bumper. :)

The kids each had their stance and throwing tactic down. 

It was slow going and he would wait all the way till it hit the pins.  After about 4 throws, he was over it and wanted to play in the game room. :)

 

What a throw! 

They kept the bumpers up for me too, so I got over 100! :)

What a fun afternoon!

Then we headed over to the Arce's house for dinner, cupcake decorating and party hats!

Everyone grabbed a cup of juice and watched the ball drop.

Happy New Year!!!!

The last few days of Christmas fun

On day 21 Shauna, Nonni Patti and Papa Rick came over for dinner and a Christmas present exchange.  We just love this family.  We always have lots of laughs, lots of drinks and lots of fun. :)

Garrett cooked a delicious meal of prime rib, potatoes and green beans.  After we were all stuffed, we dug into the presents.

Santa with his reindeer. :)

Tatum couldn't wait to open her presents, as you can see.

Lots of excitement!

Along with some beautiful clothes, she got books and the Ana doll from Frozen!

This is Ty's "I can't wait to open my presents but I'm a boy and boys don't get too excited" face. :)

But he was!

He also got some cool clothes, a Ninja Turtle, and this web slinging Spiderman!

And here's GM with her presents.  She's pretty excited too. :)

The kids, Grandma and I made her this blanket.  We loved making it and we hope it brings her team lots of luck!  After gifts, we drove over to Christmas Card Lane in PQ but wow, it was so crowded!  The line of cars just to get into the neighborhood was ridiculous!  The Beastons headed home and we drove up and down a few streets but we'll have to remember to hit that neighborhood earlier in the month. :)

On day 22, we headed to Roundtable Pizza to meet up with the Lizano's and the Rose's for dinner and Christmas lights!  From left here's Zach, Jonah and Ian.  Ty LOVES hanging with these big boys and they're always so kind to him and include him in all the big boy fun.

Oh the trouble!  These girls are so cute together.  From left, Kaitlin, Tatum and Sarah are all fast friends and have been since their first year of preschool.

Silly girls!

After dinner, we headed to Carriage Road where there's a neighborhood just off that street with lots of beautifully decorated homes.  The kids loved it!

Ty loved the hot cocoa!

The girls.  Joy and I had to take a photo in front of our name of course. :)

Family photo opportunity!

And the night ended with some karaoke.  We had a blast and we're definitely doing this again next year!

Day 22 brought cool clothes, compliments of the Beastons, and lots more fun...

After removing our nice, new clothes, we decided to focus on The Grinch.  We read How the Grinch Stole Christmas, then the kids made Grinch pictures with their hand prints.  Tatum did a wonderful job as the teacher, painting Ty's hand and helping him.

While we waited for our pictures to dry to continue them, we met some friends over at Chick fil a.  The Christmas cow came to visit!

And here are the beautiful pictures the kids made.  They each picked their favorite quote from the book and wrote it below their picture.  We'll definitely hang these up next year!

Day 24, it's Christmas Eve!!!!  Garrett had to work that morning but came home before it was time for Grandma, Tatum and I to head to church.  Ty will probably get to come with us next year but for now, the boys stay home and get dinner ready.  They made delicious lobster, potatoes, corn and salad.  Yum!

And after dinner was opening a few presents!  We let both Tatum and Ty open a present of their choice and they chose Aunt Diane's gifts. They LOVE what she sends and this year she out did herself.  Tatum got an American Girl doll!  She named her Katie and couldn't wait to get her dressed in jammies and make her part of our family.  And Ty got a magnetic set that he can build into all sorts of things!  He spent half the night inventing vehicles and I think it went to bed with him. :)  We also opened our traditional gift of a new pair of jammies.  I love this tradition and always love going to bed in a new pair of comfy jammies.  Garrett took the photo this year since his jammie shorts were too small. :(

Oh the craziness!  Everyone was so excited of course and after laying out milk and cookies as well as a carrot that you can kind of see in the left corner of this photo, we headed off to bed.

And at 6:30, Grandma woke everyone up to see if Santa came.  She slept on the bottom bunk in Tatum's room and after a little coaxing, she woke Tatum up and then Tatum ran into Ty's room and got him going and then they all came into our room to wake the rest of the house up!  And we ran out to the fireplace to find this!  Santa came!  Tatum got a new bike!  And Ty got a new razor!  Lots of wonderful gifts and full stockings.

After things calmed down, we enjoyed some traditional monkey bread and mimosas.  Cheers to family time and Christmas!

And after we put it off for as long as we could, it was time to open gifts!

We always take a picture with everyone and their pile...

Here's Garrett covering most of his pile.  He got the most this year!

Our little photo bomber!

We all had a wonderful time opening presents and I was most thrilled with my present from Garrett.  A ring! 

I couldn't catch a picture of the kids, but we headed out after we cleaned up a bit and enjoyed our new toys.  I really enjoyed this new razor bike Santa brought Ty! :)  Around 4, we headed to Grandma's for Christmas dinner where we enjoyed stuffed chicken, salad, rice and garlic bread.  We also got to open more gifts over there and keep the gift giving going!  What a blessed family we are!  Merry Christmas!!!!