Christmas Morning Joy

Ahhh...there is nothing like Christmas morning mayhem...I mean JOY! It was so cool to wake up to Maddie and William tapping us at 7:00 all excited and anxious to go downstairs to see what Santa brought them. They had so much fun opening their stockings, gifts from Santa and gifts from us under the tree. Exciting gifts this year were the Barbie camper, new Razor scooters, pillow pets, lego sets, and a real makeup kit for Maddie. Fun, fun!Can you spot Lou amidst this mess?
Maddie was very excited with her Barbie Camper even though she really wanted Santa to bring her the Barbie Airplane. She is discovering how fun and cool the Camper is!
Dad got Wil the coolest UFC boxing gloves. They make a grunting noise when you hit with them. Definitely one of William's favorite gifts.
Maddie's new makeup kit from Grandma Jeanne.
Already polishing her toenails bright RED!
Christmas morning moved over to Grandmacita and Papa's house. Stinky...the dumptruck who "passes gas". Pretty funny.
The Polly Pocket camper. Lots of campers this year I guess!
Doing Grandmacita's nails.
Wil and Dad playing with another one of William's favorite gifts- a boxing ring for his Yaw-Yaws! It was a great and fun Christmas. Lots of new toys to play with... and find a home for!

Christmas Eve

I had to snap a photo of our family Christmas tree. Maddie looks like she's looking at Angels in her pretty Christmas dress. We've SO enjoyed all of the Christmas cards we've recieved from our friends and family! Maddie and William absolutely love getting the mail and being in charge of opening the cards. I'm going to miss just getting junk mail and bills. I love my Christmas card collage this year. :)
Maddie and Wil each got to open ONE present on Christmas Eve. William opened his present from his cousin Josh. As you can see, he LOVED his new Nerf gun.
Maddie helping Soosa with the bread pudding.
Lucas looking absolutely adorable in his Christmas outfit!
Maddie and Erin, Sonja's college friend, now our family friend too, enjoying some hot, Mexican chocolate (pronounced cho-co-latte). After we left Mike and Lynda's, we headed home to bed so Santa could come! Maddie and William have never gone to bed so easily!

Disney on Ice!

We had a great Christmas in Southern California. On Christmas Eve day, we went to Disney on Ice at the Honda Center. It was a great show! All of the characters were there as they skated through the different celebrations we have throughout the year, ending with, of course, Christmas! We were able to invite the whole family to join us- Grandma, Grandpa, Soosa, Russell and baby Lucas. It was so nice to have something fun to do as a family before going to Christmas Eve service and than to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner. On the way home from the show we passed by four motorcycles on the freeway and the drivers were all dressed in bright red Santa suits. Their passengers were decked in festive holiday attire too... red fishnet stockings and all! It was awesome. It was a gorgeous day and it was SO cool to see these people out spreading Christmas spirit and enjoying the holiday. We were the ultimate passerbys too- we had the windows down- all smiling, gawking and waving as we zipped by them. I had to call my family right away. I always miss them so much on the years we don't travel back to Minnesota for Christmas. I miss having a white Christmas too. It was fun to share with them what I was experiencing in my So Cal Christmas.

William's Christmas Performance

William was a sheep in his first ever Christmas performance a couple of weeks ago. His biggest fans were in the audience- myself, Mikos, Maddie with her Kindergarten glass, Grandmacita, Soosa and baby Lucas. It was so fun to see him sing Christmas songs with all his little classmates. It was the perfect way to get us all into the Christmas spirit.William with his girlfriend Maddie who he says he's going to marry.
Best buds.
William cooperating so nicely for a photo op post performance (yeah, right).

Dance performance

Maddie had her Christmas Dance performance this afternoon. She was so excited and we were so proud of her. She did awesome! It was fun to see her perform on stage because last year she got a bit of stage fright and didn't dance. She ended up being so disappointed afterward so I'm so glad she did it this year. She did great and she loved performing! This is the one shot we snapped of her in the "Opening Parade" around the sanctuary. The show was at a huge church called Friends Church in Yorba Linda. There was a quite an audience too!
Silly girls!
Post performance. Daddy brought her a bouquet of flowers. You should have seen her face. She was so excited. She told me in the car on the way to dinner that she got her first "colony". Not sure where that came from but sure made me laugh! I corrected her of course and than she asked me what a colony was. How do you explain that?
I had to throw this one in here. After the program, we went to Chevy's for dinner. Today is Grandpa's birthday. Our actual celebration will be with the family tomorrow night for our annual Ruth Chris dinner but he got some cute birthday wishes and fried ice cream at Chevy's and the kids sure thought that was fun. :)

Gavin's birthday party

Saturday afternoon we went to our good friend Gavin's 4th birthday party at Pump-it-Up! I'm not sure who had more fun... Daddy or the kids!Gavin is Jordyn's little brother. Jordyn is Maddie's best friend.
Gavin and William have become good buddies too! They play great together. They keep each other entertained while the girls take their dance class and we've had some fun playdates too! The Kuo's have become good friends of ours.

Ducks Game

We've had a busy weekend and the time has flown by. I can't believe it's Sunday night already. Of course I didn't get done nearly the amount of things I hoped to accomplish but it's been a great weekend. We started it off Friday night taking in a Ducks game. Gotta love the ipad for a little third period entertainment...

Daddy/Daughter Dance

Mikos and Maddie had their annual Holiday Daddy/Daughter Dinner and Dance last night with their Indian Princess tribe. Maddie was so excited. These events are so special to her... and Mikos too. They had a great time. Mike said Maddie was busting a move to Michael Jackson on the dance floor. So cute.