Christmas Gifts!

I got this idea to wrap the kids up as presents for my Christmas cards from a group in the Roseville holiday parade. Ryan got so excite when he saw me wrapping them. They both couldn't wait to play in their "box".  They posed pretty good and I do say they make cute little packages. 

Jaiden playing Peek-a-boo

The hunt for a Christmas Tree

We had a fun/crazy time in Paradise searching for the perfect tree. Jaiden loved running away from us and Ryan would point at every tree and say, "how bout that one?" In the end the one we got wasn't everyones favorite but I think it is very cute! 

The True Meaning of Christmas

With Ryan getting older I really wanted to start teaching him about Christmas being about the birth of Christ and our Church did a reenactment of Bethlehem Village. Ryan was so excited to see Baby Jesus. It was a great way to bring what we had been reading in our Christmas books to life. 

One of the Wisemen gives Ryan a gold nugget to give Baby Jesus. Ryan was so excited. Ryan would show this gold to everyone after this point and say, "I have Gold, Its for Baby Jesus." He held onto as tightly as his little hands could.  

Ryan helps a woman at the well fetch water from the well  and fill her pitcher. He did really well and had to do this several times. 

Ryan Explores the Shepards camp near by the manger and pets the sheep.

 

While we were visiting with the Shepherds the Angels appeared and announced Jesus Birth. It was very exciting. Ryan had so much fun. It will definitely  be something we will repeat this tradition next year.

All Aboard!

On our way back home from Thanksgiving we stopped in Pleasanton for the Great Train Expo. There were so many train layouts to see. The boys just watched and watched. Our favorite was a complete layout made of legos. There even was a miniature Hogwarts castle. Ryan even got to control his first model train. 

Below Jaiden watches the train go round and round. As it would pass he would say, "bye train, bye!"

Lots to be Thankful For!

I have many things to be thankful for in 2008. To start I am extremely Thankful for the opportunity Todd's company provided for us to be in Pendleton Oregon this past year. It was such a wonderful time. The country is beautiful up there and I made some wonderful lifelong friends whom I look forward to visiting next spring. I am always thankful form my children who bring me so much joy every day! I am thankful for Ryan being able to be in Preschool and receiving services , his speech is improving greatly. We are in the process of getting him assessed by Kaiser. It is a long process that wont really even get started until Feb. I am thankful for the help from Todd's company and our family, in improving our house. We have new carpet, a new refrigerator and a new heating and air unit. I am very thankful for my husband who God has blessed with patience and understanding for me. I am thankful for all the support and love from all my friends and family this past year. It was hard to be away from you all but great to know that you supported what we were doing and shared in the excitement of our adventure. 

We spent Thanksgiving this year at The Wiley home in Mountain View. My parents and sister Beth joined us. We were also Surprised to have Todd's Sister Christine come home to make it that more special. We had a great dinner followed by some Mario Kart and wii Bowling. It was a wonderful day!

Thanksgiving morning while Jaiden was napping Ryan and I killed some time playing in our friend's front yard. Their tree had dropped many leaves on the ground and we had so much fun throwing them at each other. Ryan also loved being covered in the leaves. It was one of my most favorite memories from the day. I love how simple things can just light up my child's face. 

I love this picture of Ryan. His hair is the same color as the leaves!

The day after Thanksgiving we celebrated my Sister Kelly's and My birthday with my family. As always  it was a afternoon of teasing and laughing. The kids all got along great with the favorite activity being jumping on the dogs bed. I cant wait to see them all again at Christmas.

Concrete Slide

I learned about this slide in A small free paper that gets delivered to my door. They are made of concrete and go down the side of a hill. We took a piece of cardboard with us to ride on and down we went. You go faster if you have wax paper under  you as the cardboard gets worn down quickly but it is still fun. I think Surfboard wax would work awesome! Ryan went down the first couple times with our neighbor and friend Catherine, and then wanted to go alone. He had so much fun! He called it his skateboard racing machine. JJ on the other hand, when a couple times with me and then got scared and wouldn't go down at all. We are looking forward to going back with some wax paper and perhaps some plastic tote lids. 

We are doing well. Ryan has been in school now for about a month. He seems to like it, and has been coming home singing songs. He is getting speech therapy twice a week and the therapist says he is doing well. The teacher says he is doing great with transitions and is following directions great. He also is using the potty consistently at school, if only I could get him to do that at home. The past couple days he has been talking a lot. Haven't figured out quite why but I am starting a dietary journal to try to see if it is diet related. We have a intake appointment with Alta Regional on the first and Kaiser received my paperwork but said they wont be able get Ryan tested until FEB! :( Very frustrating but at least he is getting some services through the school and he is improving. 

Embossed Card

I made this card a couple weeks ago for my Mom. I hadn't gotten my craft supplies out since we had moved back to CA and I decided it was time to do so. I was itching to do some crafting. So I locked myself in my craft room and made this card. I usually don't put printed paper with printed paper but I decided I would try it. I think it came out pretty cute. I am still pretty new to embossing, but I love how simple it is and how cute it comes out. 

It is so great to finally have space and time to craft again. I stared making some small albums for christmas gifts. I am also going to be organizing my craft room this weekend. (I CANT BELIEVE I HAVE A CRAFT ROOM!!!! :) ) My Mother gave me her old sewing cupboard that now will now become my craft cupboard. I Cant wait to get all my craft supplies out of their boxes. I will post some pictures once I get it all together. It is even being installed with a lockable doorknob with key to keep little hands out. I cant wait!!!

Spookey Memories!

So I couldn't post this earlier because we had misplaced the charger to our camera and the pictures were stuck on our camera. But thought you would enjoy seeing our halloween memories. Jaiden was Captain Jack, and Ryan was a Power Ranger, although he would tell you that he was Batman. The boys, of course, had fun running from house to house. Jaiden carried a sword and ran around yelling "Aaarrhgh!" I love being able to relive childhood with my kids,  And I get free candy too!!! We also had fun decorating our front yard. It was great because the kids saw us decorating they weren't scared. And if we saw something kinda scary we declared it, "Spookey." A much less intimidating word. It was a great Halloween. 

The Happiest Place on Earth!

We had a busy 3 days in Disneyland with family. When we got into the park both boys were excited to see the Disneyland Castle. Especially Jaiden who pointed and said, "look Daddy, Castle, Caste!" We went with Todd's sister Christine,  my three sisters, my niece Abbey and nephew Justin. It was so great to be able to share this great vacation with everyone. It was a little crazy at time with so many people and everyone having different things they wanted to do, but it was so much fun! And of course we got some great pictures. Ryan had fun meeting the different characters. While we were waiting in line to see Tigger, he jumped out of line. As I got him back in line he said, "I want to hug Tigger." Jaiden just kept pointing out everything to us. Favorite rides included the Rockets in Tomorrow land, The horsey ride (AKA the carousel) , The Winnie the pooh ride and the new Toy Story Ride. Todd and I got to ride Tower of Terror, which I will say made me scream like a little girl! We are thinking about getting passes so we can go more often. 

Ryans favorite ride was what he called the Horsey Ride. I don't even know the number of times we rode it, more times then anything else by far. 
We were excited to Meet Captain Jack after riding the Pirates of the Caribbean for the first time. 
We couldn't believe that Jaiden was big enough to ride the Matterhorn. He looks pretty scared in this picture but he rode it 3 more times. 
The park was decorated great for Halloween including large candy corns in California Adventure. Jaiden was so cute pretending to eat them. 

A couple new crafts

So lately I haven't had time to do any crafting. And Frankly I have felt a little lost without it my favorite past time but I have been so busy with my house. Our newest project is painting the living room RED. It is very bright and I love it. We have also chosen carpet finally and it will be installed on the 14th. So I thought I would post a couple projects that I did before I left Pendleton. The first is a magnetic Calendar that some friends and I made on the back of a cookie sheet. There is a different sheet for each month  and magnets to place on the calendar for appointments and special events. It came out so cute. I will try to create instructions if anyone is interested. 

These cute paper cupcakes are a project that I found on the chatterbox blog called the Chatterblog. But it can also be viewed in video format on youtube. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcCTYZM3hrM They are not the quickest craft to make but sure have a cute result. 

Boys Birthday!

Ryan and Jaiden's Birthday Party was a huge success! The favorite thing by far was the bounce house. My kids wouldn't even exit the house for Cake and had to be drug out to open gifts. We had great turn out. It was so nice to be able to see everyone. 

We were happy our babysitter Catherine was able to join us. 

Jaiden sporting his cute spiked hair cut. 
Blowing out candles on a pirate ship cake Daddy Made. 

We made it home to CA

Thought I would give an update to how we are doing. We made it back to CA on Sept 16th. After two hours of helping Todd clear the living room of furniture and boxes the boys and I were rescued by my good friend Jennifer. We spent the week in Paradise CA playing with her 3 kids. The boys loved her large back yard and lots of play equipment. We have pulled out all the carpet in the house, It smells so much better now, and are having a new air/heating unit installed next week. We are still trying to agree on carpet but hope to get that picked out and installed soon. Ryan's birthday was on Sept 24th. We had a nice dinner and then went to 31 flavors for ice cream. We are celebrating both the boys birthday's with family and friends Sat. Look back for pictures. Not too much else to report other than I miss Pendleton Dearly. I look forward to a visit in March of o9. 

Ryan and Jaiden playing with Owen, Emma and Nathan Ward at their house in Paradise CA. 

We stopped by Crater Lake on the way home. It was so pretty! Ryan really liked telling Daddy how the volcano exploded and then filled up with water, after Mom had explained it to him. It was nice to get out of the car and walk around a little. 

Round-Up Adventures!

We have had a full schedule of Round-up activities and the weekend isn't even over yet. We enjoyed the Rodeo, BBQ and Happy Canyon show on Wen and a full day of Carnival on Thurs. The Boys loved the Ferris Wheel and the fun house. Papa and Grandma Nobriga bought them new cowboy hats and man do they look handsome! I will miss this town when we leave. It has such Character.

bumper cars

This became the boys favorite thing to do on our back deck. They both would laugh so hard! 

Pirate Party!

We had a Awesome Birthday Party for Jaiden and Ryan with all their little friends here in Pendleton. The highlights were hunting for treasure and having pirate fights with foam swords. Jaiden especially loved walking around and saying "ARRAAGH! Pirate Captain!" Thank you to everyone for coming and helping us celebrate!

Fighting sleep

I just wanted to share something that has become a nightly routine at our house recently. Ryan has always gone to bed really well. We never had a difficult time with him getting out of bed or anything. Well recently he has been getting up, turning on his light and playing after we put him to bed. He is really quiet about it and we usually don't hear him, until we walk down the hall way 30-60 min after bed time to find him playing on the floor. Well the other night I checked on him before I got in bed and found him asleep on the floor. It was too funny that I had to take his picture. He had taken all his blankets off his bed so he could play with his cars on the mattress and eventually fell asleep on the floor. 

New Websites

So the past few days I have been addicted to searching for new crafting websites and ideas on the internet. And I have found some good ones. Make sure to check them out <------------------- One, called the Scrapbook Lounge where they have weekly crafting videos that you can have delivered right to your email box. Make sure to check them out!

Paper Bag Album

This little paper bag album was another class I taught. It was so easy and so cute! I got the directions off of a youtube users site. www.youtube.com/users/angik08 It uses 5 brown paper lunch bags. You can also buy these bags in white from the store. I cut cardstock at 4.5 x 7 to use as the cards inside the paper bags. You can put 2+ in each bag so this little album can really hold a lot of pictures. I hope you try this album, it really has cute results.