It's the most wonderful time of the year

We had such a great Christmas this year! Tim's mom, brother Todd and Todd's girlfriend were able to come up this year. It was a full house with 7 of us in a 2 bedroom apartment, but we had a blast!

Here are some, and by some I mean a TON, of pictures:

Christmas Eve at church

Brooke and her besties

Nana with her grandbabies

My handsome and happy baby boy!

Love them!

Christmas Eve present

Christmas jammies

reading the Christmas story

Brooke has been loving Toy Story so we got her a Jessie doll.

She LOVES her!

Brayden got a bumbo! I love his funny expressions!

He will hate me for this later!

We sang happy birthday to Jesus at my parents

Brayden's first Christmas

same pictures...

Since my kids were both born in September, doing things with Brayden at 3 months reminds me of things we did with Brooke when she the same age. I went back to look at some pictures of some of our traditions we do every year and found these 2.

This first one is from our annual trip to San Francisco. We always take a sister picture. The top one is from 2 years ago with Brooke and the bottom one was this past Sunday with Brayden.

This one was taken where Leah has her Choir's Christmas concert each year.
I didn't even remember that I took this picture with Brooke until I saw that tree...it's hard to miss!

This is what happened when I tried to take a picture with both of them!

Merriment on Main

Every year Vacaville has their annual Christmas Tree lighting which is called Merriment on Main. We used to go every year when I was growing up, and for 15+ years my dad led the singing. I have been back in Vacaville now for 5 years, and I had never taken Tim until we went last year when we had started at Crossroads. This year, since Brayden was 2 1/2 months old, we were Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. It was fun to be a part of the Nativity scene while the kids choir and adult choir were singing some beautiful Christmas music!

Brooke hung out with my mom and Michael (who obviously did not want to take this picture) while we were up on the stage

Brooke and daddy getting ready to share a burrito

Thankful

We had a great Thanksgiving this year and had so much fun celebrating as a family during the day then spending time with my family and some friends that night. I am so thankful for the blessings God has given me.

some of my blessings:

Another thing I am thankful for happened this past week as well. Once a year I get together with 7 of my closest girlfriends from college. I usually only get to see them once a year because I live so far from them . So you can imagine my excitement when I got to see 2 of them this week!!! Amy, Chris and Logan came up last week and we were able to have dinner with them and the Eckles. It was so fun to sit together and talk and watch our babies play together! I love that Chris (who I have known since I was 12) married one of my favorite people!

Then, later that week we headed out to Napa to see Sarah, Max, Jacob, Kennedy and the cute little baby bump! I loved our time together, eating and catching up, talking about the newest addition that has recently joined us and the one that is coming soon. We watched our kids be a little crazy and play in the restaurant (thankfully we were the only ones in there most of the time).

I am so thankful I got to see these girls and their precious families! Can't wait until our next girls weekend!!

The best sound

Daddy was making Brayden laugh! Brooke was over it...you'll hear her. :)

5 years

Tim and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this past Friday! It's hard to believe it has already been that long! I am so thankful for Tim and feel so blessed to be his wife. I love everyday we get to spend together and I love him more and more everyday. I am so thankful that God brought us together and we get to spend our lives serving Him side by side.

We went on our first date night since Brayden was born!

We went to the Melting Pot in Sacramento! It was so good!

Such a fun night with my hubby!

Brooke and her Bubba

When Brayden was born we started trying out all the nicknames...buddy, bud, little man, and so many more. Within a few days Brooke decided on her nickname for him...Bubba. We are not sure how she decided on that one, since we had been saying all of them. I think that makes it even more special. She calls him Bubba all the time, especially when he is upset or she is being lovey with him. She will say, "It's ok Bubba" or "I love you Bubba" It is so cute! Here are some pictures of Brooke and her Bubba:

(Brayden's doesn't seem so sure about her yet ;) )

Brayden at 2 months

Our little Brayden is 2 months old and is growing so fast! We took him for his check-up on Wednesday and he is 13lbs and 2oz (82%) and 24 1/4 inches (90%) - shocking, I know...not like his dad is tall or anything. My kids are going to pass me up by the time they are 10. :) He started sleeping 6-8 hours a night 2 weeks ago, which was wonderful, but he got a little cold this week and has been sleeping 4-6 right now. I can't wait for the cold to go away and I am hoping he will go back to the 6-8. I love his little noises, which are much different than Brooke's. He grunts and his little coo's are deep and raspy. He is super smiley and has even giggled for us a few times. He loves to cuddle and would love it if I did nothing but hold him all day long. I love being his mommy.

Fallapalooza 2010

For Halloween we headed to our church for their annual harvest carnival which is called Fallapalooza. They have tons of games, food and of course, candy :) Brooke was just over a year old last year and wasn't able to play many games, so this year was really fun for her. She loved all the games and getting to pick her own candy...I definitely encouraged her to pick mommy's favorites! Tim was in charge of all the bounce houses and was supposed to wear a costume so we decided to go with a family costume theme again (see last year's here). We decided to go with a football theme and I have to credit to Hayley for the idea! Tim was the football player (Chargers, of course), Brooke was a cheerleader, Brayden was a football and I was a referee. We had such a fun night!

The cheerleader and football (mid-blink)

My little football

This picture made me laugh...this totally captures how she feels about taking pictures right now. I am having to bribe her to smile in pictures now, so unless I get a picture where she is actually smiling without posing, I get this.

bribed

playing games

CANDY!!

blurry action shot with Uncle Mikey, Papa and Mimi in the background

Brooke and her friend Makayla

Brooke loves Toy Story! So when she saw Buzz Lightyear, she couldn't take her eyes off him! He was nice enough to take a picture with her. I can't imagine what Disneyland will be like for her!

Brooke, Brayden and Mommy

Brookie and Daddy

Football Family