ChRiStMaS 2011...

Christmas morning was an early one for me and Boston.  Then came the next early riser, Berk, at about 6:30, Braden woke next and we woke up Brenner so by 7 we could open presents.  The boys loved everything, of course.  We unwrapped for what seemed like forever, and again, despite really trying to cut back on the number of gifts the kids got, they were spoiled. It was only 2 weeks ago, but I can barely remember it.  Newborn brain and all. Here is a rundown of the gift highlights...

Rusty- Lots of new (smaller) clothes, an assortment of running related items,

Caryn- Ice cream maker for my Kitchenaide, PINK sweatshirt and  campus pants, cookbooks, books,

Braden- PS3 Motion and games, Airsoft gun and ammo, and a free wheel for his bike

Berkley- 3DS and games, Wii games, soccer ball

Brenner- Cars ball pit, Batman trike, Scooter, Elmo instruments

Boston- clothes, small toys, activity playmat,

Family- a black Wii, a digital Piano (from Becks), handmade wooden blocks (my parents)

 This door/wall of cards is one of the things I most look forward to each holiday season.  I am always so sad to take it down.  I love looking at them and running to the mail box each day to see what new photos we had gotten.

 Here is our biggest gift of the day. We got a piano! It is technically a keyboard, but it has so many bells and whistles and I love watching the boys and especially Rusty, learning and re learning to play the piano.

It's funny as the boys are getting older our house looks less like Toys R Us threw up in it and more of a Toys R Us/ Best Buy combo kind of thing.  We got to see the Becks that day and my sister the MacMasters came over in the afternoon.  We missed seeing my parents and Rhonda's family because they had the 24 flu.  Yuck!

Christmas Eve 2011...

Christmas Eve 2011

My boys are so silly.

Good thing these two littles are usually happy, it helps me through my day!

We had a nice dinner at the Becks before playing the Right, Left game (Boston and I scored $10 each!) and then the nativity.  We opened gifts from the Solomon cousin gift exchange and then we opened our PJ's!

All our PJ's this year were blue and super soft.  LOVED them!

And here are a few pictures of my house this year. 

Zoolights!

I cannot believe we have had our zoo membership a year already! We got it the same time we went to the lights last year and now here we are. We used that membership a ton- until I got hugely prego, then not so much. But I am excited for the cooler weather and once Boston is a little older we will be zoo bound again.

We dropped Boss off with Aunt Jill and took Jaci with us instead. We thought she'd like the lights better than the baby. Following tradition we went to Chic-fil-A first and then to the zoo with the Robison family. There were lines when we got there, but we were able to buy tickets at the members window and not wait at all!

Just like last year the kids were a little disappointed they couldn't see all the animals.  And they got a little confused at first when we would say, "Look! There's a gecko!" because they would be looking for a tiny lizard, not the 6 foot long light display.  By the end they figured it out.  We did see the otters swimming and the kimono dragons, so they were happy about that.

On our  way in they passed out these glasses. At first you thought they were 3D, but they were so much cooler! As long as you weren't trying to walk while looking, it made lights look like the picture above. The top is just regular lights, and the bottom with the glasses.  We kept having to hold the kids hands because they wanted to keep the glasses on, but they couldn't walk straight with them. It was pretty funny.

When we left the lines were outrageous! I would never wait in those lines. I mean the lights were cool, but to wait double the time it takes to see the lights does not for a fun night make! Thanks for the outing Robison family!

(Hey Addi, I need the picture of all of us with our glasses on-k?)

Rusty's Work Party...

Every year at the holidays we get to get together for dinner with Rusty's co-workers. Since most of his team are actually in Texas it is usually a small group.  This year there were just 7 of us. We ate at Rigatony's and it was a super fun, relaxed night.  I am still having a hard time with this whole post baby body. I would prefer to be in my PINK pants and a tshirt most of the time -- oh wait, I am.  But since I got all dressed up, and was having an amazing hair day, I had to share this picture.  Rusty has lost a ton of weight running. Not on purpose- MEN! I tell ya. So we have had to buy his new two size smaller clothes.  So proud of you and all your hard work. You are the best provider and I love your job at AT&T and how much you love it and are so good at it!

Seriously, good hair day.

Soccer is DONE!

Berkley's season got cut short by a week due to a really rainy week the week before. We still got to have his year end party and he was so excited to get his trophy, of course!

 Berk with his buddies Max & Jack

 Thanks Coach!

So proud of how hard you worked this season Berk! Way to go! (Braden was here too, but he was off winning a million tickets, so he wasn't in the pictures!)

My Bunco Group Christmas Party...

I have been playing in a constantly evolving Bunco group for the last eight years. I host every December and we have done a bunch of different things at it. We did an ornament exchange a few years and those were fun but getting 12 new ornaments every year is a bit much so last year we started a new tradition. So here are the pictures from the 2nd Annual Bunco Ugly Sweater/Sweater Vest & Turtle Neck/ Holiday Accessory Party.

 I made these two for the prize pool. My Dad cut the wood for me, and I used my Silhouette to do the vinyl.  I actually made one more that says SNOW, but I had to keep it, it was too cute!

 Here were the rest of the gifts.

 All out on display. You can see Berk pointing to the super soft blanket. He was very happy that I actually ended up with it.  He has since taken ownership of it and I will never see it again...

 Here are our two subs. My sis Chelli ( who plays with us a lot, like a perma-sub) and Jess, who used to be in the group and we love when she gets to come sub. They both came early to help me with the kids.

 Jess got Boston to sleep, and he stayed asleep for hours. I told her she had to come over every night.

 All the girls playing. We usually throw a stuffed pig and yell "Travelers" for one part of the game, but we threw a little Santa and had to yell "Santa", it was pretty funny.

 Kim brought her baby Klohe to bunco. She's pretty cute. Kim and I actually had our babies on the same day (she delivered HOURS before me, lucky) but we labored across the hall from each other and were texting all night and day.  It's a fun memory.

 Rhonda's sweater was definitely in the top of the contenders, her turtleneck and antlers put it over the top.

 Me and Jess and my homemade ugly Tshirt.  It was fun to make, and I will be archiving it for future Christmas parties.

 Dano, Jenn and Scarlett were looking pretty fine that night. Wowza.

 The Rasmussen sisters in their holiday finest. Man, we rock. For the record my turtle neck has scotty dogs and Rhonda's had poinsettias.  Mine was was uglier.

 Our 2011 Bunco group (minus Sherry and Parie).  Sara (between me and Rho) was the winner. Everytime I looked at her sweater I giggled.  Minnie Mouse, blinking lights in the sleeves and jingle bells on the band.  It was truly amazing.   I even made ornaments for the winner of this year and last.  Love you ladies!

(Back) Scarlett, Jenn, Danielle, Addi (last year's winner), Jill, Chelli

(front) Rhonda, Sara, me and Kim

Soccer Star...

Oh what a difference a few seasons make.  Berkley is loving soccer this year.  I was a mean mom and told Rusty he couldn't coach because I knew I would have a hard time with Boston being so little.  He is on the Tigers this year with two of his best friends Max & Jack, and they have a few players from last season too. It's so fun.  Here are some pictures from the first few games.

He loves to throw the ball in.

 He has learned to get aggressive going after the ball. He can dribble amazingly!

Buddies Max and Berk rip it up when they play together!

The Sharks-- errr I mean Tigers, most of these kids played before together and their Mom's (me) have a hard time remembering which team this is.

 He loves playing goalie and is getting so good at it! I think he just likes to be able to touch the ball with his cool goalie gloved hands.

We think we will put him in club next year and see what happens when he actually gets to play real, organized soccer.

12K's of Christmas...

Rusty has developed a LOVE for running. The race season is just beginning here in AZ, so stay turned for plenty 'o running posts in the coming months.

His last one of 2011 was a local one called the 12K's of Christmas.  I like this run because it goes right by my in laws home so we can cheer him on and because they give everyone santa hats to run in.  But people don't just wear the hats, oh no. They wear tree costumes, dress as elves, ornaments, and the dogs are dressed up too (it benefits some dog organization so a lot of people run with pets). It is the best people watching race. And for the runners there are carolers along the route. Fun huh? The kid in the full blown Santa suit was in the top 10 or 15 runners. Dedication I tell ya. That thing had to be hot.

 I mean look at the grandpa in the green tulle skirt and tights! Hilarious.  There really isn't a lot of places for people to watch this race, it runs along a canal, so people thought the boys were so sweet for being out there.  They gave and got so many high-fives. The runners would go out of their way to come to the boys at the fence. Nearly all said "Thanks for coming out!" The boys thought it was so cool.

 But they were really out there watching for this tall skinny guy we call Dad. So when we saw him we were excited.  We waited for him to make the loop that came back by us before we left. We saw some other friends (Betheas) and Rusty's aunt Alison running too!

Rusty had his best time ever. And I really was quite shocked how close to the front of the pack of what I call 'real runners' he was.  Way to go Rusty!