Gabby is 2!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to you!!!
Happy Birthday to you!!!
Happy Birthday to Gabby!!!
Happy Birthday to you!!!!

Isabella is decorating the cake while Gabriella has other plans...





All Gabby wanted for her birthday was balloons!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Girl!!!!

The Best part

Why do they say Save the best for last???

Without baking first, there is nothing to enjoy.

What can be better than decorating, sprinkles, and EATING!!!!

Enjoy!!!!

Nicholas, the baker???

Nicholas was very excited to go to Grandma's house for cookie baking. Instead of baking the entire time, he came in towards the end and helped a little. His focus was elsewhere for a while. Two games of basketball with Papa, coloring trees with Papa, and then cooking. Can't blame a kid for having his own priorities!!!



Beautiful pictures, Papa...

Rolling the dough... Stockings and stars...
Twinkle Twinkle yellow star....

He is a baker afterall!!!!

Cooking with Grandma

Nicholas and Isabella spent the afternoon with Grandma yesterday baking cookies. Grandma said that Isabella was a complete natural. She was very tuned in from the beginning to the end. She rolled the dough into a ball, sprinkled it with flour, rolled it out with a rolling pin, used the cookie cutter, and LOVED the decorating. Apparently the sprinkles were her favorite.

Rolling the dough...


Cutting out a star...
The first batch is done...

Decorating...look at the green fingers...

All done!!!!!

Gabriella's Christmas

Gabriella's Christmas has been off to a good start. Santa came to my preschool to visit the children and I spent a great deal of time holding her while she checked out the big man in the red suit. She did NOT want to sit on his lap but admired him from afar. When she saw the candy canes, she thought she would share with Santa but still on her terms.

Gabby doesn't really have a list this year. This will be her second Christmas and two days later, she celebrates her 2nd birthday. She loves the tree and she wants to flip the switch for the lights. "So pretty" she says every time. It will be fun for her to see everything all lit up this year.

Merry Christmas Baby Girl!!!!


Do you want to sit with Santa??? "NOPE!!!'

I'll share candy canes with you...


Reading books with Grandma Rose...

Nicholas's Christmas

Nicholas's got to perform in his first Kindergarten holiday program this year. He had a speaking part which he was completely uncomfortable with and it showed. I think I saw him break out in hives!!! :-) He is his Mother's child after all.

He got to dance with a cute little girl to Jingle Bell Rock and that was WAY fun for him. Cowboy hat and boots are just his style. As he was dancing, he never once looked out at the crowd. I have a lot of pictures of her and the back of his head. Oh well!!!

His Christmas Wish list this year includes...
**a santa suit with beard (no idea where to find that..looked but not since Halloween can I find it)
**the Transformer movie (not getting that)
**a cowboy hat (definitely got that)
**checkers (got that)
He will also be getting Transformer chess, shaving kit, and new K-Nex.
Maybe with everything else, he'll forget about the Santa suit!!! Crossing my fingers!!!

Merry Christmas Little boy!!!

Dancing the Jingle Bell Rock....

Dancing the Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho-Down...

YEEEE HAAAAAAW!!!!!

My Little Cowboy!!!

Isabella's Christmas

Tuesday was our last day of school and Isabella's school program. This child will someday be a performer although it must be on her terms...as are most things in her life. :-) She sang loudly and was born for the stage.

Her Christmas list this year includes anthing GIRLIE!!!! This child is the exact opposite of her Mother but Her Grandma Cheyann thinks that it's the best thing ever. Definitely paybacks. Her letter to Santa states...

**lip gloss (check)

**lip stick (check)

**make up (check)

**nail polish (check)

She is easy!!! And done!!! Merry Christmas!!!!

Singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.....

Just singing...

Checking out her Red Nose... :-)

Happy Girl!!!
Her best friend Kendall!!!

It's been a while

I know so much has happened since I last wrote but I'll never be able to remember all of it. That's actually sad since I'm sure I wanted to recall it someday. Maybe it will come back slowly and if it does, I'll write.

Since the last major thing was Thanksgiving, here are some pictures of our trip. We left Saturday and headed to Pismo where the kids rode their bikes and dug in the sand. Gabby got to run towards the ocean and try to beat the waves back. Sometimes she made it, sometimes she didn't. The kids had a blast!!!

We left there on Tuesday, Jeff went back to work on Wednesday, and we had dinner over at Grandma Rose's house with Uncle Randy and Aunt Jeff (YES, you read that right) on Thanksgiving Day. The rest of the week was all of us hanging out and not doing a bunch of anything. Exactly what we needed!!!

Our family got a little bigger on November 13th when Jeff's sister Jenni had her baby. Baby Lucas was 6 lbs, 9 oz, and is as cute as a button. Momma, Daddy, and Lucas are doing well!!!

Happy November

The girls digging a hole.

All three playing in the hole.
Us and the Pacific Ocean.

Jeff and the kids chasing waves.

The sisters.

Letter to a friend

Dear Jason,

Updated!!!

Love Michelle :-)

Newspaper pictures

See if any of these pictures from Merced look familiar!!!!!

http://dwb.mercedsunstar.com/static/slideshows/weekly/

Soccer

We are three games into our soccer season this year. I was fortunate enough to get Nicholas and Isabella on the same team...his second season, her first. Nicholas is an all around go-getter ( 3 goals the 1st and 2nd games, none today) while Isabella is your classic pick-grass-while-everyone-else-is-playing kind of player. She found a beautiful dandelion last week playing goalie, got her arm stuck in the net, and even did laps around the goal posts. Miraculously, the other team never took advantage of our goalie situation and the game ended 6 - 0.

Today was a tie game but both of them played great. Highlights of the last couple weeks.....

Our Favorite Goalie...

Another goalie shot...

Nicholas floating through the air with the ball.

Nicholas dribbling and Isabella splitting. This makes me laugh. :-)

Guess where this one ended up???

Nicholas is SIX

We just celebrated Nicholas turning six with family and friends from school. He had an army party and an army of people showed up. Lots of fun was had by all!!!



The big cake...


The Camo balloons

Most of the children

The bounce houses

Happy Birthday Big Boy!!!!

Art from #2.

A couple weeks ago, Jeffrey was showing off his ability to make pig noises while we were having dinner. (Attractive, I know, but necessary for this story.) As we all know, too, Jeffrey's line of work makes him prone to comments and name calling regarding law enforcement officers.

The other day, Isabella came home with a drawing entitled...

My Dad is a Pig!!!

I couldn't stop laughing!!!!

Isabella is a Pre - K

Isabella has been waiting for this day for a while. She is a Pre-Kindergartener! Apparently, this group of children have cooler work and get to do cooler things. We have been talking about this important right of passage all summer.

Well, she woke up totally grouchy but the morning got much better. She was all smiles by the time she left but had to have a time out on the playground in the afternoon. This may have something to do with Nicholas being there but I haven't gotten the entire story yet. One day they all rat themselves out, right???

Here are some pictures of the morning.

GROUCHY ISABELLA...
HAPPY ISABELLA....
Spidey watches on....