New Years Eve

Today the kids and Dane left for the Dunes. The kids were so excited to go and ride their Quads and Dane was excited to go. I was excited to have a night to myself to watch some girly movies and lay around in my PJ's. New Years was never a huge deal to me and some people think that I am crazy to spend the night alone but it will be 2010 for a whole year and I am sure that we will have many more memories and adventures. I just consider it my break before the craziness begins!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Gramma and Grandpa stucki's house

After our dinner we always go to Grandma and Grandpa Stucki's house to give them their presents and to hang out with all our cousins. When we got there Richard, Stephanie, Estee, Kyle and Alyssa were there.
We gave Grandma her present that was book of pictures of our family. We gave Grandpa a gift card to Einsteins bagels one of his favorite places.
We had a fun time hanging our and talking to everyone.It was a great end to a great Christmas day.

riding to Grammas house...

We were all ready to go when Dane asked Brian if he wanted to ride his bike to Gramma's house. Dane is always joking with the kids so Brian was not sure if he was serious or not. Dane was serious and said that he would ride Aubrie's bike and Brian could ride with him!!!
They were off, Brian was behind Dane and we followed in the truck. They crossed the main street and then they started to race down El Campo. I could see Dane pedaling as hard as he could . We rounded the corner to Grammas house and Brian had won!! He was so excited and was having so much fun.
I started to unload the food and went inside while they were still riding. Next thing I knew Brian was inside looking like he was in trouble. I asked him what happened and he had crashed into Valerie on the sidewalk!! He felt so bad and was sure he was in trouble. But it was all forgotten and we all enjoyed a NICE dinner.

roller skating and bike riding

Right after the kids got their big gifts from the Big Guy. They ran inside and got dressed so they could try them out!!! Brian was on his bike and going up and down the street faster then I could take pictures!!
Aubrie put on her skates and was gingerly skating on the street. She tried for a while and then determined she needed more practice!!!! Dane and I watched them for a while and then we had to head over to Gramma's house for our Christmas dinner!!

Christmas!!!

We left cookies and milk out for Santa in hopes that he would come and bring all we wanted!!!

As we waited for Gramma and Valerie to come over the kids were in my room going crazy with all the hopes of getting what they wanted!!


They ran out of the room and were diving into their stockings, and all their Santa gifts. We all opened our stockings and then Brian looked around and did not see his bike that he had asked for and he was crushed. Aubrie came over and told him that she bet it was in the garage and to wait!! What a smarty pants she seems to have it all figured out (so next year we will have to make sure that Santa leaves the big gifts some where else)




They were both excited for everything they opened, Aunt Valerie present was a HUGE hit with both of them!! She got them both MP3 players and had uploaded music to them already. Aubrie opened her first and Brian looked at me and said he was jealous, so I made sure his next gift he opened was his MP3 player.
Brian was really excited for his Nerf guns and his hunting stuff from Uncle Robb!!
We spent almost 4 hours opening gifts that is right we all watch each other open each gift and have a nice breakfast break of Einsteins Bagels.
It was so much fun, finally we are done and the kids were all ready getting dressed to go in the garage to see what else Santa had left them.
Well Aubrie was right and she found her roller skates and Brian found his new Mongoose bike that he wanted. Of course my stupid camera did not get a good picture of him with his bike so we will just have to keep that moment in our minds!!!!

pj's and gingerbread train......

Another one of the traditions that I have kept since I was a kid is that the kids get to open one present on Christmas Eve and it always new PJ's. It took me longer then Aubrie to catch on to that one and she is always saying oh I wonder what my PJ's will look like this year.... ahhaha what a funny kid.
So this year they got to open two gifts, one from Dane and I and then one from Gramma. Of course the gift from us was PJ's and Gramma gave them moon sand and silly putty!!!! They were thrilled to open two and excited they got more then jammies.

For the past couple of years we have been decorating a gingerbread house last year we did a tree and I found a really cute train the day after last year so I thought it would be fun to do the train.
Yeah not so much fun they do not last a year the gingerbread smelled so bad and the frosting was hard and not really sticky!! But we worked with what we had. The frosting was so stiff we were able to make a snowman with the white one.
It was OK because it made for a lot of laughs and fun anyways we just knew that we could not eat anything!!!
We were sure that it would fall apart in the middle of the night but it did not, SURPRISE SURPRISE!!!!

Fondue dinner....

Ever since I could remember we have been having a fondue dinner on Christmas Eve. It is one of my favorite traditions of Christmas and it has become one of the kids favorites too. We have one with a yummy cheese fondue that we dip bread into and then we have a chicken broth one that we cook chicken and steak into. We also have 24 hour salad that is Dane's favorite.
It is such a nice dinner to have because it takes a while and you can all chat and enjoy each others company. Brian was really excited to see the olives and he had to do the olive finger trick.
The whole dinner was yummy and Aubrie can not wait to do it again next year!!!

Poor Kitty....

a couple of days ago, Brian sat next to misty and started to pet her and she let out a weird cry, I thought it was weird but did not think to much of it. On Monday I noticed that her backside was really swollen and she was licking at a certain spot. So I took her to the vet and found out that she needed emergency surgery on her anal glands. Oh boy, so we left her at the vets and picked her up later that night.
The vet told us that if we had not brought her in that day her glands would have ruptured and it would have been way worse.
It was so sad to see her all drugged up and with a cone on her head. Brian was so worried about her he started to cry when we got in the car. He was so sad that she was crying, Misty is his buddy.
She has to keep the cone on for two weeks and then we will have the stitches taken out.

PS oh after we had the drain taken out on the 27th my lovely cat went under Aubrie's bed and pulled the cone off and preceded to take all the stitches out herself. So we had to take her to the vet and have them put back in. Now she is not messing with the cone and we are watching her like a hawk to make sure we do not have to take her again.

Candy Train

Tonight the kids went to Gramma house to make a candy train. They were so excited because they were both spending the night at someone's house!! The train turned out really cute. Brian and Gramma went and delivered it to the Pace family. Brian was so excited to see the new baby and to the play with the kids!!!

All dressed up....

The kids got to wear their Christmas outfits to Church today!! They looked so cute so I had to take a picture. Aunt Valerie was over for dinner so they all posed together, good thing one of the Staples girls likes to take pictures!!!!

Bellagio with gramma and aunt valerie

Tonight while we were having our adults only Christmas party, the kids were having a party of their own with Gramma and Aunt Valerie. They went on a trip to see the Bellagio flowers and the water fountains.
They packed a picnic dinner and headed out!! Good thing they packed the picnic because there was a major accident on the freeway, they were stuck on the freeway for an hour and a half. Finally they arrived at the Bellagio, they went and looked at the holiday flowers inside and then went outside and watched 4 fountain shows! Then they were headed home, my mom was impressed on how fast Brian inhaled his last half of his sandwich and then he was out for the count.

2nd Christmas party...

Our second annual Christmas party was tonight!! We had a good turnout, lots of people and lots of yummy food!!! I love that we have a party for just the adults it is a great date night for everyone with kids and fun for the one without too!!!
Everyone was pretty much gone except for the Oteros, the Gonzales, the Coopers, Bert was playing his music. We were all dancing and having a good time. Bert and Rhonda were the last ones to leave around 2 and me and Dane fell into bed, after I picked up of course and put all the food away!! Can not wait till next year!!!

Gunshow ...

Today Dane took Brian to his second gun show. Brian was so excited, they were gone for about two hours and they both came home with a lot of stuff.
Dane had bought Brian a whole kit of things to play with a gun, a mask, a badge and a walkie talkie. Brian loved the whole thing and Dane was very excited about the Hunting stuff that he had found for himself!!! A back pack that he will model for anyone who wants to see it or not and some ammo.
Dane said he had a great time and Brian felt the same way!!!

Christmas party at school

36 mini green cupcakes were all made and Brian was so excited to have me come and help in his class!! It was an unoffical "Christmas Party", another dad brought cupcakes and treat bags. The kids were so excited to get treats and watch a movie.
Brian had me take a picture of him and his friend Natalie, this little girl is so cute. I think she has a little crush on him she and her friend where giggling after I took the picture!!!!

I love Brian's teacher she is so fun and does so many cute things with the kids!! Brian loves coming to school and for that I am thankful.

Fingerprint snowman.....

Rhonda and I decided that we should make these really cute ornaments with the kids. I invited Emilie and Gavin to join us. My sister had made them with the kids last year and they turned out so cute so we thought they would be great crafts.We started with a McDonald's lunch yummy nothing is better when you are a kid.

After they gobbled down their lunch we got them one by one and painted their hands and made the hand print on the bulb, they were all hung to dry. So while they were drying the kids were running around playing and having a good time!!



After they all were dry we called the kids over to color them with sharpies. Rhonda was so funny she was so worried that they would color them funny, Evan was the first one done and then Brian was done. Aubrie and Andrew took a while to get them done then out of no where Andrew was spinning his and Boom it fell and shattered all over the ground. Oh Rhonda composed herself nicely (HAHAHA). She was really OK with it since he had put pink skirts on all the snow men. Aubrie was trying to listen to the girl talk and just kept adding stuff to her ornament. Finally I told her to stop and made her go play.

They turned out so cute!!! It was really fun and I can not wait to see what we do next year!!