Gingerbread Houses

The J and J house

We've been decorating gingerbread houses for a few years now. It became a little tradition when we lived in Samara. You wouldn't think they sell gingerbread house kits in Russia but thanks to IKEA we were able to find some.

This year Nathan teamed up with me and went a little wild with the candy! Jojo let Jon do whatever he wanted to do on their house so Jon got a bit artsy!

The boys got their fair share of candy!

The "N" house...

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday! Truthfully though we weren't quite sure how it would go. My oldest sister hosted Thanksgiving as she has so many times in the past. Only difference this year was that she cooked the whole meal herself! She usually has it catered or her father - in - law cooks the turkey and ham with the rest of us bringing side dishes and desserts.

The only other time I remember her cooking was about 14 years ago! She really outdid herself and admittedly it was absolutely delicious. I'm really proud of her. Not only that she made it all from scratch...even the fried onions for the green bean casserole!

Jojo and Naynay were the only kids at the kids' table!

It was good to see my sister Monica out and about. She had a complicated surgery a few weeks ago and recovery has been tough. She can only hang out for a few hours at a time and last night she did great even though she was in pain.

I didn't get a group family picture of our little family but we plan on working on the infamous Christmas card picture today or tomorrow. I am extremely thankful for my hard working husband. He has been doing great at his new job. He loves working there but he is swamped and comes home so tired every day. On top of his job it has been a crazy semester for us but he has handled it all so well.

My mom turned 73 this year! We always joke that she will outlive us all!

And my sweet Jojo! He's had a tough year too. He's been working so hard this year after formally being diagnosed with dyslexia. He's been a trooper and has gone along with all the different programs and therapies we are doing!

4th of July

We've had a full summer so far and as we approach the end of July I'm slowly preparing myself for the new school year! I've been thinking about our summer and how much fun we've had even though we really haven't gone anywhere too special.

On the 4th we celebrated Independence Day at my mom's. One of the best parts was having all the cousins together. Now that the older ones work it is a rare occurrence.

My oldest sister, Alex, organized some fun games for us to play........

Of course the men barbequed.............

Plus we also celebrated Nathan's 8th Birthday............

Our Easter

Easter came real quick this year! Things have been crazy around here and admittedly I wasn't as focused on the day like I usually am. Yet, we managed to have a nice day celebrating the resurrection of our Savior.

My handsome men!

Unfortunately my youngest has all of a sudden become camera shy. He refuses to be in any pictures. The plan was to take some family pics after church.......meaning everyone was to stay in their "church" clothes. That was the plan but he quickly came in and changed his clothes. I wasn't too happy about that and I guess I could have made him change back into his church clothes. I pouted instead and had a bad attitude! Not a great attitude to have on Easter Sunday, is it?

Thankfully I got over it. Family came over later and we had a nice dinner. We also had an egg hunt and the kids got some treats.

Happy Thanksgiving

This morning we headed to beautiful O'Melveny Park to take some family photos for our Christmas card. The boys weren't too excited to do it but I just love having pictures and seeing how they grow up through the years.

Here are some of my favorites.

Forneris Farms

This year we almost forgot to go to the pumpkin patch.... even though it's one of the things I missed the most when we lived in Russia. Admittedly, I remember looking at everyone's pumpkin patch pictures on Facebook and always feeling a little sad that we couldn't go to a pumpkin patch.

Not too far from where we live there is a family owned farm and they do a great job at putting on a "harvest" festivity. This year they are actually celebrating 100 years of farming in the same location!

Top Book Picks For Valentine's Day

I was never a big Valentine's Day fan but once we had kids......that all changed. It's fun passing out Valentine cards, eating heart shaped candies, and reading fun books. Once mid-January rolled around I went to the library and checked out all the Valentine books they had. We've read a lot of them. Actually, my husband has read a lot of them to the boys. So, here are a few of our very favorites in no particular order.

5. Nate the Great and the Mushy Valentine by Marjorie Sharmat

Who doesn't love Nate the Great? Nate the Great hates mushy stuff but one day he "spies" a big red paper heart taped to the outside of his dog's doghouse. Nate is on the case solving the mystery of who left the mush Valentine for his dog, Sludge. There's a surprise ending to the story! The boys loved this book and giggled a ton.

4. Olive My Olive by Vivian Walsh

It's a cute little love story about two cute little dogs. Our youngest is really into dogs right now so any story about a dog makes him happy. This story is actually really sweet.

3. Valentines's Day by Gail Gibbons

There are a ton of books in the library about the history of Valentine's Day and how to celebrate. This book in particular is just really concise and an easy read. My 10 year old likes these factual type of books more than my 6 year old.

2. Winnie the Pooh's Valentine by Bruce Talkington

I will always be a Pooh fan and this book didn't disappoint. Both boys have definitely outgrown Pooh Bear but they still enjoyed the story. Plus the illustrations as always are magical!!!

1. Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli

This was my favorite book. Even my husband said it was probably the best book he's read to the boys in a while. Mr. Hatch is a very lonely man but one day he receives a mysterious package with a pink bow. "Somebody loves you," the notes says! Mr. Hatch is floored and the package literally changes his life. I could tell you more but I don't want to ruin the story! I plan on buying this book because we all liked it so much!!!

Christmas Countdown- Day 14

 I can't believe it but I've been so busy that I totally forgot to post for day 14 and 15!  So, I will be playing catch up now. 

Day 14 revealed that we were attending our Sunday School's Christmas party at church that evening. The boys love parties and so they were looking forward to it.

I got to be one of the event photographers for the evening so I have over 200 pictures! Thankfully I will only share a few with you.

I love the panorama feature on the iPhones. Jon took this one.

Jojo entertaining himself before the party started.

It was a fun evening. There was delicious food, worshipful music, and they even had a short children's program. Jon and I are so grateful for our Sunday school group. 

Our wonderful pastor and his sweet wife.

Oh, and our Bible reading for the day was Luke 2:6-7.