Christmas 2012

This Christmas was a very special one for us, as it was going to be the first of many Christmas' in our home. I remember as a kid waking up Christmas morning at my house and running down the hall seeing all the Christmas presents Santa had left.  One year I slept with a flashlight and woke up my brother in the middle of the night to go scope out all our gifts.  Waking up Christmas morning at home is something I want my kids to always remember and cherish as I did.

But first its Christmas Eve and the tradition of tamale making lives on.  Jake, Madden and I left San Diego early Christmas Eve morning as Skylar had been up at my parents already and we wanted to go see her and we knew we needed to get there early to start working on tamales.  My Aunt Sandra has really stepped up with making the homemade chili sauce and brought over a massive pot of it.  Now that I have two kids, I kind of get a pass at helping as I'm watching over the kids, but this year I was able to help out a bit more.  Toni definitely deserved the MVP award as she was the one who was constantly helping and folded each and every tamale we made.  I will also give my Dad an honorable mention as he did a great job spreading dozens of tamales.  This year we did 35 pounds of maiz which felt like the never ending bowl of maiz. After about 2 1/2 hours, we made about 8-10 dozen tamales.  It was more than we did the year before, but it was worth it, because we were all able to take home a bag of tamales and sauce as leftovers.

I must admit now, I did a really bad job at taking picture at Christmas Eve.  I was busy with kids and Madden had a pretty horrible cold, so I had tissues in my hand most the night, not the camera, but I did my best.

Skylar was in a great mood the whole day, which we were lucky about because she refused to take a nap.  At one point in the night she wanted to have her own dance party in my parents garage and we couldn't get her to stop dancing.  It was pretty cute as she was entertaining all of us.

Since we were driving home that night we wanted to start the present opening earlier rather than later for the kids.  Madden was taking his last nap of the night with Jake so Skylar took over opening up all his and her presents.  Per tradition I took the lead and passed out all the kids gifts and ran the adult white elephant gift exchange, hence another reason why we only have a few pictures of present opening.

All in all, it was a nice Christmas Eve, I know next year when Madden is older and able to participate more its really going to be fun.  We were very grateful for all the gifts my family got the kids and would call Christmas Eve a big success.

Both kids past out on the drive home.  Skylar was in the middle of singing "Jingle Bells Rocks" and was asleep half way through the song.  We got both kids transferred into bed with no problem and Jake and I put all the Christmas presents around the tree.

The kids woke up at their normal times and we took them downstairs together to see what Santa had brought them.  Skylar had been talking about getting a scooter from Santa for weeks but once she saw it, she had no interest in it and only wanted to play with Madden's push toy Santa brought him.  At least Madden had fun with the scooter.  

Small side note: I thought I was doing the smart thing by putting the kids in their Christmas Pajamas at my parents house since I knew we were going to put them straight to bed when we got home.  Well, Madden decided to poop all over this Christmas jammies on the drive home, so that is the reason he isn't wearing his.  I was pretty bummed to say the least.

Present opening was a lot of fun, but it also took awhile.  Every time Skylar opened up a toy she wanted it immediately out of the box and wanted to play with it for a while until we could convince her to open the next present.  Madden was such a joy and even with a horrible running nose he had such a smile on his face all morning.  His favorite gift had to be the set of bongo's Papa got him.

That night Jake and I (well mostly Jake) made a lovely dinner for my parents and my grandma.  No complaints about our first Christmas in our home.  Looking forward to many more!!

The Bressi Ranch Holiday Party

I feel like it had been months since we were able to attend one of our communities social events.  We missed last years and I heard only great things about it, so I knew we didn't want to miss it this year.  I wanted to get there right on time because I knew Santa was going to be there and I needed to get pictures of the kids with Santa Claus and didn't want to wait in line.  We told Skylar that Santa and Mrs. Claus were going to be there and she needed to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas when he asked her.  I was kind of surprised that Skylar was so willing to sit with him and that Madden was the one in tears.  

Telling Santa she wants a scooter!

The Social Committee did a great job decorating the whole clubhouse.  They had holiday treats, hot chocolate, ornament decorating, and a DJ who provided great entertainment for the kids.  Skylar decorated an ornament and sat and listened to Mrs. Claus read a book to all the kids.

We ran into our great new neighbors which was perfect.  Skylar, Sophie, and Abby were like three peas in a pod.  The girls participated in some of the activities the DJ put on.  One activity was to decorate someone as a snowman, which meant wrapping them in toilet paper.  I just about died laughing at the three girls attempting to do it.  Sophie was so cute and volunteered to be the snowman, but once Abby and Skylar started wrapping her up I don't think Sophie was that in to it...as you can see from the look on her face.  Skylar wanted to be wrapped next, but that didn't last long and the girls just started throwing the toilet paper in the air which they seemed to enjoy a lot more than the actual game.

 

Mrs. Claus turned out to be the hit of the party.  She was doing face and arm painting to all the kids and the line for her was almost out the door.  The girls waited in line patiently for their turns.  They all decided to go with pink glitter on their noses and had Mrs. Claus paint pink reindeer's on their arms.  Skylar's reindeer is still on her arm, as she refuses to let us scrub it off. 

It was starting to get really chilly, Madden was needing to go home and eat, and the girls bed time was creeping up so we decided to head home.  But of course, the girls were not ready as they were hula hooping like crazy after the big kids finished their contest.  Skylar as typical, cried because she didn't want to leave, but I understood because she was having such a blast.  We still feel so lucky to be living in such a great community that does wonderful events like this.  We are looking forward to next years social events and hope to be able to make it to more of them.

2012 Ernest Family Holiday Photo

Family Photos

I was pretty excited to take our family photos this year.  I wasn't able to get any professional pictures of Madden for his 6 months and the last pictures I got of the two kids together was when Madden was only a few weeks old, so it was time. 

Boy, did things not go as I planned.  First off both kids were sick with horrible coughs and running noses.  We had never done pictures at the beach before so when I booked our session with Stefanie a few months earlier I thought it would be perfect.  When we got to the beach it was chilly and windy which isn't the best for two sick kids, their poor noses were like running faucets.   From the second we got there Skylar was in a horrible mood.  She refused to walk or even stand on her own and only wanted to be in one of our arms (hence why all the pictures with Skylar she is being held).  Half way through the photo shoot we just had to put Skylar down in the stroller and take pictures of Madden and us.  She was screaming her head off the whole time in the background. I wasn't able to get a picture of her and Madden which was a huge bummer for me because that was the main picture I really wanted....terrible 2's....what can you do!

After about 20 minutes of listening to Skylar crying we figured we probably should put an end to all of it and just hope we got at least one picture.  I left there with no hope and figured we wasted our money and got nothing.  Needless to say, I was presently surprised when we Stefanie emailed me the final photos and we got a handful of great ones.  

FaceTime with Unc

I just thought this picture was too cute not to share.  The other night Skylar and Madden did some FaceTime with their Uncle.  Skylar was extremely talkative that night and told Unc all about her weekend.  With Matthew and Erin being so busy we don't get to see them enough so FaceTime is the perfect way to keep in touch with them.