The Birthday Boy

Our Little Man turned 7!!! What an amazing seven years it has been! He brings so much life and laughter to our family! And a lot of non stop energy! He woke up so excited and ready to celebrate! He ripped through his presents and LOVED everything! Then a birthday donut and a quick round of happy birthday and he was off to school! (The only way I could get him to go to school on his birthday was by promising him that I would bring subway to him for lunch!) Here is the handsome lil devil showing us how old he is

After school it was party time! He invited all his buddies to go rock climbing!

They had so much fun racing to the top over and over again!

He has such a fun group of friends.

After we wore them all out with climbing we took a break for pizza, cake and ice cream.

We washed it all done with some more climbing, and then sent them home with some water bottles filled with rock climbing goodies. Easton said, "It was the best birthday ever!"

We love you bud! So glad you had the "Best Birthday Ever!"

#25

Our Little Athlete just finished his first season of Jr. jazz. He LOVED it. His team was made up of most of his baseball team. So they had a blast! Most of the kids including Easton were new to the sport, and since some of the kids are in second grade my little kindergartner had to play up. But don't you worry, they were amazing! They won every game but one. Not bad for a bunch of baseball players. :-) Here are a few of his 2011 Jr Jazz highlights! Blue powerade was always his drink of choice.

Here he is making one of his several baskets!

All of the baseball kids LOVED Travis and asked if he was going to coach Basketball too?! He laughed and said No, but I will be the assistant coach. :-) So here is Coach Travis blocking Easton in a warm up shot.

Action shot!

That's my boy...stealing the ball right out of his hands! Which is mild compared to the fact that on the way to his first game he asked, "So can I tackle in Basketball?"

Easton looks so small comapred to that ginormous kid but no worries, #25 is good. He scored over all three of them right there! SCORE!!!!

To say he had fun would be a total understatement! He loved every second of it. He was actually really good too! Making several baskets every game. He is so much fun to watch. So athletic. And like any true athlete now that basketball is done he has moved onto some baseball spring training. Gotta love my Boy!

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G B-E-E 2012

Our family has amazing spelling Genes. It started many years ago when I won the First grade Spelling Bee at Trabuco Elementary. I am sure my picture is still proudly mounted on the wall in the library. Fast forward a few years and Kennedy sailed through her Fifth grade class Spelling Bee, which meant she would be representing her class in the school Spelling Bee. For weeks we spent hours going over the 450 word list preparing her for her big day. Most of the words I could not pronounce. Many of the words we had to google to find a meaning. Needless to say these were not easy words. The day of the Spelling Bee was filled with excitement and nerves for all of us!

The spelling Bee started at 2:00. Word after word she was nailing. After about ten minutes into it the 36 students started to slowly dwindle down. At about 3:00 they were down to the top ten. I was sweating. The words were ridiculously hard. Another thirty minutes went by, and you could literally cut the tension in the room with a pencil! My little fifth grader continued to knock student after student out of the competition. She finished in FIFTH PLACE!!! We were so proud of her! I was in tears of joy as we ran up to congratulate her. As we were hugging, I noticed she was in tears too! Only her tears were due to the fact that she was disappointed. Just then Mikey, her friend who got out on the word before her, came into the hall to tell her what an awesome job she did. Which made her realize just how amazing she was. She wiped off the tears, clenched her award and proudly smiled to capture an incredible memory she will hold onto forever!

So I guess if the thunder thigh genes have to be passed down to me at least I was able to pass on the phenomenal spelling genes!

Boys Night = Girl's Night

Easton and Travis spent the night with his Jr. Jazz team at the home opener for the Jazz. Easton's baseball buddies are all on the same team so they are like brothers. And the Dad's all have fun hangng out together. So they were both so excited for their "Boy's Night"

So that means we get a "Girl's Night!" Dinner and pedicures.

Pefect night.

Ringing in 2012

We rang in the New Year with a house full of friends! It was a super fun night! Here is the Table all set up for the big night!

Blowers, hats, confetti, a mustache phot prop, and goodie bags with clocks on the front so the kids could keep themselves occupied with fun activites all night! They were a hit! They were filled with glow sticks, balloons, suckers, and my favorite one had stationary in it. The kids were supposed to draw or write their favorite memory from 2011. Kennedy: Double Digits. Thai: Being baptized. Easton: Taking 2nd at state in Baseball. London: my house. So fun to see their take on 2011. It is defiently one I was happy to see go. But through the tough times we were able to fill it with lasting memories! There was enough food and treats to keep us full all night! We played some hillarious games that kept us laughing all the way to midnight!

A tradition that has been in the Hartman family for over 40 years was introduced to our friends this year. At midnight we all run outside and throw a pancake on the roof! It symbolizes good luck for the coming year! It was so fun seeing 30 pancakes flying through the air! Pretty sure it's going to be a great year!

Happy New Year!! Bring it on 2012!

Christmas 2011

We started a new tradition in the Gunn house this year, ELF NIGHT!! Best idea ever.

We started off by eating "elf waffles!" Beligan waffles topped with all the sugar you can pile on and maple syrup of course. After giggling over dinner and getting a serious sugar rush, it was time to watch the movie ELF! It was a first for our kids, and all of them loved it! Best Christmas movie EVER!! We all decided "ELF NIGHT" will continue for years to come. Such a fun way to kick off the holidays! Then it was time for the class parties. London kicked it off with a christmas singing program. Adorable!

Then it was off to Easton's class to make gingerbread houses. He was such a cute big brother to London. Helping her with her house and introducing her to all his friends.

Then we headed down to Thanksgiving point to "drive through the lights" and made a quick stop to see the reindeer.

Every year I have had the kids pictures with Santa. Like every other mom in the world, right?! Well when I asked the kids if they wanted to go see Santa this year, I got 2 flat out "no's", one "if I don't have to sit on his lap, I'll go" and this was Easton's response, "Seriously, I don't want to go sit on some dude's Dad's lap and take a picture mom." so I respond with, okay that's fine, I just hope that the "some dude's Dad" isn't a special elf that will tell Santa that you want an xbox?! So here is this year's picture with Santa/Some Dude's Dad.... no cute matching christmas clothes, no curly hair with bows, no crying child scared of santa, just 4 kids that were tricked into stopping at the mall so I could cross something off my Christmas to do list. :-)

Usually our Christmas Eve is full of family activites and celebrating my Mom's birthday. But since Teej is off serving in Alaska, and my parents are serving in South Africa, Bree was at work, and the Daniels are living in Hawaii it was a much quieter day. sniff. sniff. Luckily for us the Blackners were still here! So after dinner, and decorating santa cookies it was time for our annual "Hartman Nativity" We were short on cast members, and missed Dad reading the nativity in his narrator voice. But as you can see we pulled it off!

The Blackners headed home to get ready for Santa and their trip to Washington, but before they did Travis pulled out Baylee's tooth that has been lose and hanging FOREVER!! Lucky her she gets Santa and the tooth fairy tonihgt!! It was still to early to put our sugar high kids to bed, so we jumped in the car and headed to the movies to see Arthur's Christmas. It was the perfect Christmas Eve movie! By the time we got out of the movie the Santa tracker showed that Santa was in the United States!!! So we raced home to get ready for bed. The kids were pretty bummed because they thought only Grammy could do Christmas Eve pj's. So when we handed them a box to open befoer bed, they all screamed and were jumping up and down! Guess I pulled that one off. :-)

On Christmas morning the kids bounced into our room with excitement that only Christmas morning can bring. Here they are ready to dash down the staris to see what Santa brought!

Kennedy was beyond thrilled to see her Kindle! (She has already finished 2 chapter books!!! She can't put it down!) Who's child is this??

Thai was to busy checking out her teacher kit that Santa made she didn't even look at the camera!

Easton saw his xbox and that was it for him. He didn't even need a stocking or presents under the tree... he was zoned out!

Can you tell these boys are having fun on the xbox???

London showing off her baton, was so cute, she would play with each toy for a few seconds and then laugh and pick up the next thing. Her leapster ipad, art kit santa made and her American Girl doll from Grammy and Bubba were a few of her favorites.

My favorite part of the day was skyping TJ and my Parents!!! They all looked so good and happy. It was so fun to talk and laugh together. Although Christmas 2011 was a total success, I am counting down to Christmas 2012 when everyone is HOME!!!!

Christmas Dance Recital 2011

Having three girls in dance can be challenging at times, but seeing their faces light up as they rock the stage is so rewarding. They have all improved so much and they all absolutely love to dance. We are so proud of them. The three stars of the night and their biggest fan. (Thai was an orphan from Annie, hence the oprphanesque costume)

A quick hug and photo op backstage... Good Luck girls!

Such an incredible show! They were amazing!