Santa!!!

Well here are the pictures of Santa and the kids! Brooklyn was smiling and Alex....ummm, not so much, LOL!! Poor little guy! He kept saying "no go see santa, no mommy" Awe!!!

Presents for Justin!

I am so excited because I sent out little Justin's Christmas presents today! Diego called to let him know about them and he seemed pretty excited also! This is the first year since Diego moved to AZ that we aren't going to be out there during New Years to have our Christmas with his kids and parents!! Usually we take the gifts out to Justin the weekend after Christmas....but we haven't been able to go to CA since July because Diego's day's off are in the middle of the week...blah! So we haven't seen him since then!! OMGah! That is forever! We are waiting for his days off to change so we can go out there to see him. With his job he can only take his vacation either 1 week at a time or 2 weeks together, but he can't break them up and do like 4 days here and 10 another time...kinda sucks! AND they have to bid on their days! So if someone with seniority asks for the same date..Diego will loose out! Craziness!! So the best thing for us is to do the weekend thing. So keep us in your prayers that his days off change, so we can see him soon.

But anyway, I am hoping Justin likes what we got him :) I put some little things in there also since he isn't here to get a stocking :) so hopefully he will love that! I believe he is going to open them when he gets them, not for sure though. I think it would be fun for him to open them on Christmas, that way he has more under the tree on Christmas morning...(that is what we do with our kids here when they get out of town presents, makes it so much easier on us!)..but then again, I don't want it to be uneven for his little sister. Which she doesn't know cause she is little but still.... :)

I hate that we can't be there when he opens his presents :( But I am hoping that his mom will take some pics for us so we can see his cute little expressions! :)

Well, I am off to bed!!

Hometown Christmas & Parade

This past Friday our town had a "Hometown Christmas" at the Library and the kids were able to make crafts, see Santa & so much more! They had a really great time! Then on Saturday morning was the Christmas parade & Holiday Festival, so to say the least we had a pretty busy weekend! But it was fun, and best of all FREE!!!! Don't ya love free entertainment! I do!!

Here are some pictures from the weekend...

Check it out! They had fake snow!!

Brooklyn loved it!!

Alex, not so much....
Brooklyn made a Reindeer

Alex made Santa Clause!

Mommy & her babies♥

Christmas Parade Time!!!

Mmmm Hot Chocolate♥

So the kids were done with dinner this evening and I thought I would treat them to some yummy hot chocolate! Well, Alex was super excited because he was getting a "mug" & they were both super excited because they were getting marshmallows in their hot chocolate! Well, you know me...I had my camera out and I snapped a few quick pics of the kiddo's drinking their yummy hot chocolate :)

Had to share one more..

..so this is a picture from standing at the top of our stairs outside of our bedroom. I think it is so pretty to look down and see the beautiful decorations! So, just wanted to share it with you :)

Christmas!!

I am so excited to have my tree up!!! We also put the Christmas lights on our house this weekend also! Oh and this year we have stairs with a nice pretty banister..so I was able to put garland and lights on my stair banister!! It is so pretty!! Here is a pic of our tree & house!

**You may notice that our house only has lights on the lower part (b/c we have a 2 story), this is because my hubby is afraid to go any higher on the ladder..... when we had our single story he was even afraid then....so I knew that with our 2-story home it was going to be hard getting him up there! Well, he did it! Not all the way to the top story, but I am okay with that! I am just happy he did the light for our family!!

The garland going up the stairs

Our pretty Tree (you can see it from outside!)
The outside!! If you look close you can see our tree in the front window!
The picture was kind of hard to take because Diego's car was in the way...so I will put a better pic up later. It looks great when you drive by! I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!

What a Happy & Blessed Thanksgiving!

We had so much fun on Thanksgiving! It was a little busy for me personally because I cooked everything :) I loved it, and it was a good busy. My in laws came in on Wed, and just left this morning. It was a wonderful visit! We had fun playing Dice! Putting up our Christmas lights, and tree, BBQing, and just hanging out with each other.


I have to show you my turkey!! It came out so pretty!! I am also going to put in a picture of one of the sides that I made, it is called "Marinated Butternut Squash" it was my first time making it. Everyone ate it and then had seconds, so that is a good sign :) OH and I can't forget the yummy homemade pies, and sweet potato roll that I made! This was the first year I made the sweet potato roll.... I was really worried about it, that I was going to crack the bread part while rolling it. But it turned out perfect! I am so happy that it did!

I really enjoy cooking so it was a lot of fun for me. Here is what we had for our Thanksgiving Dinner.....

Turkey
Gravy (from the Turkey drippings)
Cornbread Dressing (family recipe)
Mashed Potatoes (YUM)
Marinated Butternut Squash (new!)
Green Bean Casserole (always!)
Cranberry Salad (so yummy!!)


Pecan Pie (my papa's recipe)
Sweet Potato Pie (also my papa's recipe)
Sweet Potato Roll (first time! My mom's idea)

The Turkey!!

Marinated Butternut SquashPecan Pie, Sweet Potato Roll, & Sweet Potato Pie