SNOW

Well instead of posting a bunch of pics of the kids in their pj's leaving cookies for Santa & coming down the stairs to see what Santa left them & opening 9 million gifts, I thought I would post a ton of snow pics instead!!! I think this was God's way of welcoming us (and my parents) to a non-San Diego Christmas! This is the first time Rob and I have been here for Christmas since we have been married and the first for my parents (obviously since they moved here in Sept.). We LOVED having a White Christmas and being with both sides of the family...
Our house in the beginning of the BLIZZARD...
We were crazy enough to go out in it and it was miserable!!!

Snow Angel...

Xmas day at the Seats we all bundled up to sled...Here is my mom, the California girl, going down the hill...

Rob giving Mary a push...

Me and Rachel....

My Dad's Iowa roots came out and he just kept shoveling....

Syd was most interested in eating it...

The day after Christmas the kids got out in it again with some friends...

Syd and Ty going down our big hill...

Here's our Frosty...

Thanks BLIZZARD of 2009 for making our first Christmas not in Sunny San Diego so fun!!!

Santa Baby

"Santa" is taking donations since all Gabe is asking for (from Santa) is a playstation. I would say no way but Daddy thinks it's a great idea!

My Sweet Boy

Gabe started his first year of basketball with Rob as the coach. They have been practicing and they both are loving it. With the first game approaching (it was Sat.) Gabe decided he wanted to make something for all his teammates. He has the sweetest heart and loves "projects". So he cut out circles out of a cardboard box and colored them like basketballs and then put each of the boys names on them. He added some cotton balls (to look more festive I suppose) and made them into ornaments. (All his idea) He worked so hard on them and then he individually wrapped each one. He was so proud and excited to pass them out after the game. I love that boy!
Here he is working on them...

Before the first game...ready to go.

Waiting for the other game to end.
Lets get started...
After with the Grandparents...
Coach Rob, Gabe, Kason and Coach Jason.
The boys did great for their first game and were completely worn out after!!!

LONG Overdue...

I basically just needed to get Halloween off so we are moving on to Thanksgiving....We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parents with Rob's family too! It was a great day. I had not been with my mom and dad on Thanksgiving in like 11 years. Crazy! Just another reason it is so great having them live here!
The hosts...

Gabe and Syd made some place cards for everyone

Talking to Wes and Carrie on the web cam...we missed them!

The Girls...

The kids with their Great-Grandmom Bet...

Syd fully participated in a football game with Rob, Dave and Gabe....She totally held her own!

Love this pic.

Happy to all be together!

Syd and Mom won our game of Aggravation.

What a GREAT day!

I HEART Halloween!

I have always LOVED Halloween and dressing up. The last couple of years we have been going to an awesome Costume party which has brought out some great costumes! (Including us as Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone from Anchorman and the winning look last year of Rob as Michael Phelps...speedo and all). The hosts of this party didn't have it this year which was upsetting because I like to have an excuse to dress up. So, a friend of mine and I decided to have one ourselves.... We had some great costumes show up! Here are some pics from that...

Rob and I as Jon and Kate Gosselin

Me belittling him....

The other hosts, Maverick and Charlie from Top Gun

Me and my mom the leopard

(Guess where I got my love for dressing up?)
The second place winner, the fundamental mormon...so funny!

Dave and Rachel as a bunny and the Unibomber...

And the winning costume went to Justin as Richard Simmons.....he was doing a routine and all!
It was A LOT of fun! Just might have to be an annual event!

Then on Halloween we trick or treated with this kids as the whole Skywalker family! Gabe gets into dressing up too and so he wanted Rob and I to dress up as Darth Vader and Padme Amidala (Luke and Leia's mom and dad). So we did! Gabe was the perfect Luke Skywalker and Syd was the beautiful Princess Leia. We had lots of fun and I am so glad that my love to dress up has been passed on to my kids!!!




The whole fam...

Trick or Treat!
Until next year!

From 1,373.30 to 0.13

Thats right... my parents went from being 1,373.30 miles away (in San Diego) to )0.13 miles (5 doors down). We are LOVING having them here and as our neighbors!!! It is still sort of surreal that they are actually living here. Rob and I have been married for 9 years and I have lived here 11 and I always held out hope that we might move back home to San Diego. So, I never wanted them to move here. I love going home 4 or 5 times a year and getting to breath that ocean air. It is medicine to my soul... Well, about a year ago I finally came to the realization that it was probably never going to happen..us moving there. With us having Gabe and Syd, and my parents retiring, we all finally wanted this move to happen. Although we were able to spend lots of time together we all were sick of being so far away and they hated missing all the "little things". So after we were out there in July they put thier house on the market the day after we left and sold it 5 days later. Everything happened SOOOOO fast so that is why it is still weird thinking they aren't leaving! We love it! So many little things fell into place that I know it is meant to be.

I have never lived in the same city as my parents with out living with them so that is a strange adjustment too! So, over all we are absolutely THRILLED they are here and so are they! We will still make a trip to San Diego (mainly for my mom and I to get our dose of medicine) every year!

I will leave you with a little Top 10 list of why we love having them here...

10.Picking my mom up just to take Gabe to school because she loves to watch him get out of the car and walk in...the little things remember.....and then dropping her back off on our way back.

9.Having another option of free babysitting (an obvious one).

8.Having my personal handy man (aka Dad) around the corner.

7.Knowing we will be able to see each other on ALL holidays! I hate picturing my mom opening her Mother's day and Birthday cards all by herself and sitting at the table reading them over and over again.

6. Knowing that when they leave our house it won't be 3 months or more till we see them again.

5. Being able to have access to my mom's closet again! She may be retired, but she doesn't look like it, or dress like it!!!


4. If I don't feel like cooking just calling them and seeing if they wouldn't mind setting a few extra places for us!!! My dad's cooking is the best EVER!



3.Not having to email videos or pictures for every event they don't get to see of the kids playing sports or performing, or of a new dress or something I want my mom to see!




2. Not even having to stop the car for the kids to get out at their house. (it's on the way out of our neighborhood).We just open the door and slow down and they jump out! ( Just Kidding, but we are thinking about trying it!)


1. NEVER MISSING OUT ON THE LITTLE THINGS EVER AGAIN!

Maybe

Rob took Sydnee on a date a little while back to see a performance of "Annie".
In preparation he was showing her some videos of Annie songs on youtube...I thought to myself... I can do so much better then that. So I busted out a video of my 1st grade talent show, when I was 6, of me singing a song from Annie and showing off my unbelievable gymnastic skills!The kids really got a kick out of it especially because I was Gabe's age when I did this. I showed this to Rob when we were engaged and I think that is what sealed the deal for him on wanting to marry me. Ha! Please be warned:you may get a little dizzy watching the second part of this. One, due to the fact that it is a video of a video from 1985 and two, due to the 50 something cartwheels, handsprings and round-offs I do in this!

My performing days ended here....

I had to split it up in 2 videos...all you miss is me taking off my wig and apron thing im wearing...