Christmas Festivas

We had our annual celebration of Christmas with the Nettesheim siblings that live here. We decorated the Gingerbread houses that Ben made, the kids acted out the Christmas pageant, and we exchanged gifts. So much fun!! My boys were bouncing off the walls and couldn't wait for it to begin! For weeks they had been talking about it!

Diego was a sheep, Luca was a wiseman, Alessandro was Joseph

Icy!!!

Yet another reason I hate the location of our house!!! Every winter we have problems with this big hill! Right before I took this picture I was watching a car slide down the hill backwards because the road was too icy to make it up. That has happened to me on more than one occasion. And often I have trouble getting in the driveway because our driveway gets icy which is also an incline, so I'm stuck with a bunch of kids to walk through the snow into the house. And trying to walk up an icy road with two little ones to carry up and 2 bigger ones to watch, is not fun! I hate it! BUT, with all that complaining, I have to say, I do realize we are very blessed to have a home and I am grateful for that.

Chorus

Much to our surprise Diego asked to join chorus this year. For Christmas time they performed at the mall and also at the school. At the mall he was lucky enough to stand next to his cousin Carter. During the performance you could see him trying to get Carter to laugh. What a goof!! Carter did good at restraining himself though. :) I wasn't at the performance they did in front of the school, but a friend of mine was and she made a point of telling me how surprised she was to see Diego jamming out to the music and belting out the songs. Hmmm I wonder what he was like there! Wish I would have seen it! :) He is such a goof ball!

He loved having his cousin there

Decorating the Christmas tree

We decorated our tree at the beginning of the month. I felt like it was a night of trying to teach Mia not to pull ornaments off, but I think she learned her lesson! She hasn't pulled any off since then! Woohoo! I thought a lot of ornaments would be broken because of her this year, I was a little nervous. But it turned out just fine. We always look forward to getting our tree up.

Thanksgiving

I know Thanksgiving seems like a long time ago now, but I'm trying to get caught up on all that we have done. We had a great long weekend over Thanksgiving. Udine has this thing against staying home for Thanksgiving because he hates sitting and watching football all day. (If it were soccer it would be a different story) We had to cancel our trip to San Diego this year because of his back, so we did a couple fun things in town for the break. On Thanksgiving morning we went to the zoo...one of our favorite spots to go as a family. They gave some of the animals pumpkins to eat and little treats like that. It was neat to see. We watched the elephant crush a 700 lb pumpkin and then eat it with her baby. We saw a lot of animals we don't see up real close very often like the tiger and gorilla. It was a lot of fun. After that we went to Matt and Jamie's house for lunch and met up with Grandma and Grandpa Becker there. Great food, great company, you couldn't ask for anything more! Grandpa and Grandma gave each of the kids a little advent calendar that has chocolate in each day they open. I think that was the highlight of their day! :) My boys didn't even know what to do with it, but once they were told and found out what it was all about they were VERY excited. The day after Thanksgiving we just chilled at home. It was a nice relaxing day. And on Saturday we went and had breakfast with Santa. We weren't sure what to expect, but it was great! The food was good and they had some crafts for the kids to do, face painting, a couple games, cookies to decorate. And they got to sit on Santa's lap. It was a wonderful way to end the weekend. Here are some pictures of the activities.

One of the crafts that they made: a magnet reindeer

Writing letters to Santa

Luca eating the craft instead of making it :)

The grinch came to say Hi

As well as the gingerbread man

Mia liked Mrs. Claus a little better than Santa, but not much. She did love the bag of goodies she gave her to sprinkle on the yard Christmas Eve so the reindeer will know to stop at our house though.

Mia wanted off!! hahaha I love it

The boys slept in the family room this weekend and thought it was the greatest. Especially having Pickles with them.

Pink Eye

My kids came down with pink eye this week and I think they think it's the greatest. Usually I make them stay in bed when they stay home from school sick, but I just couldn't make them do that with this. They feel fine, they just have a pink eye that is goopy. So we're stuck at home but they are loving it. :) Hey, if we're going to be sick here, pink eye is the way to go!!!

Alessandro's Thanksgiving ABC Book

At school Alessandro made a Thanksgiving ABC Book. On the page was written "I am thankful for....................................because.................................." He had to go through every letter of the alphabet and pick something he was thankful for and say why. Then he drew a picture of it. Some of my favorites are... "I am thankful for my dad because I like going on date nights with him. I am thankful for grandma and grandpa because I like to play games with them. I am thankful for icecream because i like the taste. I am thankful for my mom because she takes me shopping. I am thankful for nurses because they help us when we have a broken bone. I am thankful for october because I like going trick or treating. I am thankful for rain because I like to splash in the puddles. I am thankful for vacuum's because they clean our house. I am thankful for xbox because it is fun to play."

Fun in the leaves

After working hard to rake all the leaves in a pile we have to have some fun, right? The boys were great helpers. Their help has gotten better every year, I guess age really helps out! :) Diego is still by far our hardest and best worker, Alessandro needs a lot of encouragement, and Luca tries really hard. :)

Luca was told to stop one too many times by his brothers. Diego always getting messy

Girls

After having three boys it is so funny for me to see how different a girl is! Yes, I realize some of it may be personality, but I attribute a lot of it to being a girl. It's great. For example, I was getting Mia dressed and went in the closet to get a plain white sweater for her to wear but she saw this colorful one and kept pointing and crying at it until I put the white one down and put this one on her. hahaha She's only one!! And she already wants certain clothes!! Also, I am beginning to think girls are born with the desire for and like of shoes. :) She is so funny, I have to hide shoes from her if I don't want them on her. Otherwise it is a fit until she gets them on. The second she sees them she'll pick them up and try to plop herself on my lap for me to put them on her. I love it. :)

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

The kids were SO excited that they got something in the mail!! I believe Alessandro's exact words were "Finally we get something good in the mail!! It's always boring stuff for you and Papi" hahaha They each took turns ripping it open and were just so excited they were being thought of. Thanks so much!!

Halloween

Trick or Treat!!
The kids had a blast dressing up and going door to door this year. I was surprised how far Luca made it. Of course he got tired on the way home which meant I had to carry him up all the hills since going was all down. Diego wanted to keep going and Alessandro was tired like Luca. Mia was so sad she couldn't go out with us, but I knew I'd be carrying Luca at some point so I didn't want to have to carry two. So she stayed home with Udine to hand out candy. After trick or treating we went to Ben and Jana's house to hang out for a bit. Good times.




Luca







Alessandro

Diego

I love the squished nose! hahaha

Mia

I thought she looked cute when she walked around.

The gang

Leaving to go trick or treat

Mia crying because we're leaving

Cute girls

I love how Mia looks upset because Cali is grabbing her. hehe

The cousins