Julia Morgan Christmas concert

What a great Christmas concert the school put on.  This was the first year that they held the concert in a local high school auditorium and the place was packed!  We had to split up the kids just to find seats.  The kids all did a great job.  A fun thing they did was plan for a surprise musical number by some of the kids.  The principal was announcing the next number when music started to play and kids (previously chosen of course) came out of the audience and started performing a dancing number in front of the stage.  The principal looked pretty confused but laughed when he realized what was going on.

We have a great principal, Mr. Couflin.  He was a great MC and enjoyed the show.  At one point you saw him wiping tears from his eyes.  He really loves his job and these kids.  

Getting into the Christmas spirit

This being our first Christmas in Stockton we had a wonderful time thinking up new traditions.  Someone told us about a local church that does a free live nativity, all from the comfort of your car!  So we first drove by the AG Spanos mansion with it's amazing front lawn nativity display.  The figures he uses look about 12 feet tall!  Then we drove to the church to see the live nativity.

It was a busy night, and we waited our turn for about a half hour but it was really worth it.  They give you a CD to put in your car that narrates the scenes and at the end you get a candy cane.  While we were waiting a lady came by our car with a donkey for the kids to pet out our windows if they wanted, they didn't.  She said people come from all over even as far as the bay area to see their show.  Who knew such a great thing was right around the corner from our house.

 Mary finding out the news that she would soon be pregnant with Jesus

No room in the inn

The manger scene

Jesus learning the trade of his father.  

What a great way to start of our Christmas season

Thanksgiving in Boise

 We are so thankful to be so close to family.  It allows us to spend some holidays with them.  We arrived in Boise a few days before Thanksgiving so we had some time to play!

The kids loved (except Mike, who claims that Griffin was cheating) playing Chinese checkers with the Peterson family.

We took in our first 3D movie, it was so fun, the glasses were the biggest hit.  The kids all took theirs home, popped out the lenses and wore them the rest of the week.  

It was great for the kids to see most of their cousins (we missed who couldn't be there).  They played together, laughed, ran around, and had a great time.  

Grandpa Tom fit in one of his "Gpa dates" and took my kids out to lunch and to the new Boise Aquarium.  Mike even got to tag along!  It was great to give me time to go shopping with my Mom and Dad.  Although my Dad was wishing half way through that he'd gone with the others.  Sorry.     

Thanksgiving finally came and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's house.  This year was a first for Turdunkin.  A duck inside a chicken inside a turkey.  Crazy right? It was delicious.  And we all loved Tom's T-shirt explaining just what a Turdunkin was.  Frankie outdid herself with a beautiful table( I never got a picture).  

After Dinner Shannon and I got to start our shopping, hitting all our usual stores and getting done around midnight.  It was so nice to sleep in the next day.  I think I like Black Friday starting Thursday night...

Poor Shannon had to race home when we were done to a very sick Carter.  Poor guy.

It was a wonderful trip and before we left we put up Gma Head's Christmas tree.  It is traditional for the grandkids to put it up and we usually miss out on this tradition but this year we were there to help!  I loved seeing all of our old Christmas tree ornaments.  

Isn't family great?

Happy Thanksgiving!

A playground for the Ratatouilles

Griff took these photo's with my phone so they are not the best.

  

Griffin and Caleigh (mostly Griff) put together this playhouse for Mouse and Crumbs(not pictured).  It is so cute how the rats play in it, they love it.  It amazes me that they will play in it for hrs without running away.  Griffin will just put them in it and go do his homework, and the rats will just play and explore.  

These rats have been a blessing to our home.  They are teaching my children responsibility and teamwork.  Twice a week Griff and Caleigh have to work together to get their cage cleaned and the rats bathed.  It's so nice to see them taking care of them and caring about their welfare.  

Pumpkin day, Parade, and trick-or-treating

On Halloween Elliot's class had Pumpkin Day.  It was a whole day dedicated to pumpkins.  We broke up in groups, then estimated how much our pumpkin weighed, how many seeds were inside, how wide it was, if it would float, and then finally we cut it open and counted the seeds.  It was a fun day.  But I think everyone's favorite part was tasting pumpkin pie!  Then the kids all headed over for the Julia Morgan Halloween parade...

That night we went trick or treating with Mrs. Swehla-Garcia (Elliot's teacher) and her son Daniel (who is in Griffin's class and his best bud).  Their friends always put together a Star Wars Haunted House.  It's not really Haunted or scary it's mostly just super cool with all the Star Wars characters.  I think Miles and Caleigh were the only ones not to go through...maybe next year.

 

 Happy Halloween 2012

Laura and Kid's big October trip to Boise

With a week still off of school the kids and I headed to Boise.  The kids were great, they kept themselves entertained.  Miles and Caleigh were great front seat helpers, and we had almost no drama.  

The kids kept busy in their own ways.  Miles had fun texting Gpa.  Gpa would ask the kids to look for landmarks then Miles would take a picture of them and text it to Gpa.  How fun!  There is not much between Reno and Boise, but Gpa made the trip exciting.  

A few weeks before our trip Griffin and I had a conversation about Disney movies.  Apparently he has not seen many of the classics (Dumbo, Pinoccio, Pete's Dragon, etc...) but his way of telling me was, "you wouldn't let me see them."  Like I was punishing him, or keeping him from seeing them!  What?!  It was funny to all of us and it became our big joke, "everyone can watch this movie, but Griffin, he's not allowed."  So when we got to Mom's she had a whole pile of movies for Griffin to see.  He set himself up (yep those dolls were all Griff) and started watching... 

We had so much fun seeing family, hitting the discovery center of Idaho to see cadavers, laughing, playing, and general mayhem.   

We had dinner one night with Gma and Gpa Peterson.  The kids each got a box of "boogers" a gummy candy treat.  Elliot didn't care for hers, so she tried to give it back to Gpa Tom the next day when he picked the kids up for a Gpa Tom and kid play date.  We all laughed.  She is so logical, I can just see her brain working, "well, I don't like these, but Gpa Tom and Gma Frankie bought them so they must like them, so I will give them back."  Ha ha ha.  Funny.

Another day we spent touring Uncle Chris's new firestation.  How cool is it to have an Uncle as a firefighter?  Almost as cool as having a Brother as a firefighter.  Chris gave us the grand tour.  The kids got hats, toured the truck, tried on the equipment, and met the crew.  It was so fun for all of us.  Thanks Big Bro!

The last day in Boise we celebrated my Dad and Sam's birthday.  These guys are two of the best men I know.  Sam is the oldest grand-kid in our family and he is just the best example ever.  

We started off the day with a tour of the recently remolded Boise, ID temple.  What a great experience to walk through with my family and children.  I was 8 or 9 when the temple was first built and dedicated and I had walked through then, but now I was able to walk through it again with my children.  How cool!  

Then we headed back for cake and ice cream and yummy food.

Finally, we all got ready to trunk-or-treat at the Firebird Raceway.  The kids scored so much candy it was unreal.  And we got to see some cool races too!  Next time I'm bringing earplugs for all of us though.  

 It is so nice to be so close to family.  A 10 hr. drive is so worth it to see my kids playing with cousins and spending time with our family.  

On the way home we had a great time talking about all the memories we had just made, and the kids wanted to know all about temple marriages, and how Mike and I met.  I love these precious conversations and road trips are the best places to have them.  Can't wait for the next one!