Post Christmas/Santa Gifts

For Christmas Santa left great gifts.
Mads got an American Girl doll. She takes very good care of her doll 70% of the time. The rest of the time the doll is found in places where she shouldn't be. She hasn't made it into the bathtub yet which I am happy with.
 Mads loves to brush her hair a lot! Her hair started to fall out. I was told these dolls need a special kind of brush. My sister and I googled it and found out it is true, they do need a special brush. My sister had some extra time yesterday so she went ahead and planned to go to the American Girl store to buy it for Mads and then ship it to us. I thought it was a place called the Americana so I sent my sister there first. I was wrong, the store was at a different place in the opposite direction called The Grove. Ooops! Last night she called us on Skype and looked a little flustered. I guess she left at 1:30 and didn't get back to meet my mom until 6:00-6:30. After seeing Maddie's excitement she laughed her adventurous day off. My kids are lucky to have such a sweet Aunt.

Korbin got a Lego Hogwart's castle from Santa. He loves Lego's. I was somewhat worried all the pieces would end up lost or mixed in the Lego tub never to be seen again like every other set he has but no. He's taking really good care of it and plays with it on his desk where it has sat since he's put it together. This funny kid always surprises me.  The big hit this Christmas for him was some Nerf guns. Those things are cool and get used a lot  by not just Korbin. There's a lot of sneak attacks everyday.

B Ball

Korbin is playing Basketball again. Jason is the teams coach. Jason was /is nervous about the whole coaching thing. Korbin is sweet and always thanks him in the car after practices and games for coaching his team. I love it! Jason has spent a few hours doing research on everything and anything and has really pushed the boys at practices. He makes them run laps if they start to get out of line and let me tell you it works like a charm. The kiddos seem to be enjoying all of it and are playing like a team.

Something that does bug me is that some of the rec teams look like they're sticking together year after year. It makes other teams way uneven as far as the boys abilities and experience. Maybe it's just my observation and opinion. Who knows.

The boys won their first game last night and where just beaming. Cool stuff!!!

Christmas

This year we hosted Christmas Ever dinner for the first time for some of my family. I was so nervous and spent the day cleaning and getting everything ready. I don't know why I did this since really it was only a few cousins coming over and I'm sure they didn't care either way. 

However it was well worth all the prep work as we started the night with a yummy dinner of ham with all the fixings. My cousin Jose was in charge of the rolls and dessert. He made a peach cobbler in the dutch oven. He did his research and it turned out great. My sister made homemade egg nog. I believe this is the first time she's cooked all by herself with more than a few ingredients and a few pans. I love my sister and can't help but tease her when the opportunity presents itself. Usually her friends let her grate cheese and easy stuff like that. She did a great job with the egg nog. 

After dinner we opened a few gifts. We had some great laughs as my cousins opened their gifts. A big bag of candy for each of them, something they didn't see coming. Over the past weeks they had come over and eaten some of bags of candy before I even had any. Jason got some fun Simpson PJ's I got him and everyone else of course got PJ's as well. After gifts we began our game of Monopoly and watched A Christmas Story over and over again until little by little each one of us went to bed and only 3 remained playing the game and Jason ended up winning a few hours later. 

The part Jason might will remember about this night happened around 5pm. In my mood to have everything clean and ready I left one thing to the very end of my list. I had 3 gifts to drop off. Jason got home from work, I left him with instructions and I was on my way out the door.  Well, as I backed out of the garage let's just say the Trailblazer got a little close to Jason's car and it has left a small dent and scratches. I was so mad because I honestly didn't know how I got so far over at an angle to hit his car. To make a long story short I cried in the thought that we might be spending Christmas Eve taking care of company policy. I felt awful for my kiddos and Jason, the guy who would have to leave his family on Christmas Eve to take care of my incident and my family waiting at home. Jason took it all very well and did his best to comfort me and tried to smooth it all over. My parents on the other hand weren't concerned for my safety but asked how Jason was taking it. Heeellllooo. After I explained that he was fine, they totally talked him up and said how wonderful he is...blah...blah...blah. 

Luckily his work didn't make me or him do anything and we spent the night just fine. Of course I got teased A LOT! What a great memory to have. I keep asking Jason how many wives have hit their husbands company cars and he assures me he's sure it's happened in the past. I do know one thing I'm not ecstatic for the next company party AND I'm still getting teased. 

New Year's

We rang in the New Year this year at my Aunt's place with my mom and sister and lots and lots of family. We had a fun sleepover. We played Monopoly and card games, watched movies and ate lots and lots of food. It was a fun night just hanging out with family!

My mom was up from California for a week. My grandma is a bit ill so it was nice for my mom to come and spend time with her and us. It was fabulous having my mom around. We didn't do much but still did a lot! I was seriously sleep deprived visiting with family on both Jason's side and my side plus trying to keep up with everything else I needed to get done. However, if I had to do it all over again I would do it in a heartbeat!

2011 has brought new things into our home. I have a new job over at the kiddos school as a part time aide. I stumbled upon it and so far so good. Then again I've done it in the past so really it wasn't anything new except I have lots of neat bonuses now. I was missing out on the good stuff and I never noticed (obviously they don't tell subs everything). It's amazing what you learn in a classroom with 20+ kids. Fun, fun memories and experiences. Classroom management is the number one thing I learned.

Also, Jason received a job offer for a different company two weeks ago. He didn't see it coming.  He ended declining the offer, we're happy with Kraft. It was nice to see someone notice all his dedication and hard work. 

As I put things into perspective the last year has really been interesting. We've had so many different events happen in our family. Some have brought tears of joy and others tears of sadness. All together we have definitely grown stronger. Jason has floored me the last year especially spiritually. He's done things he himself thought he would never try, yet he did.  I also have noticed what a good set of friends we have around here. The kids have done so well in school in the past year. Mads is more confident in her reading. Korbin is a little more outgoing with sports. 

Last but not least I completed one of my resolution for the year 2010 and this blog is it! I just have a few more catch up entries and it's done.

Resolution for 2011 is.... Organization.

 Jason and I picked the same thing as our #1 resolution for 2011, I kinda had to laugh when he told me his. It will be an interesting thing for me to start doing. Any horizontal space I consider storage space. If anyone has any tips for me please pass them along. To all my blogging friends keep up the good work. I love reading your blogs. 

Locks of Love

Mads did it! After months and months of waiting she was able to donate her hair to Locks of Love. I was nervous it wouldn't be long enough but still intended to donate whatever she had cut today since her hair just stopped growing. Luckily when we got home after her haircut we measured the length of the braid and it was longer than what was expected.
Wahoo! She's been wanting to do this for such a long time. We're glad she has good/fun friends like Emily to lead her in wanting to do something kind for someone else. Dena (our hair lady) after finding out what Mads was doing with her hair also donated her time  and didn't charge us for Mads haircut.
I had a hard time knowing this day was coming and have curled her long beautiful hair every chance I got.

All night tonight she's been brushing her hair and making remarks on how short her hair is in the back.

2011

Last night as we drove home from basketball practice straight to pack meeting I mentioned to Jason I haven't had time or desire to blog in the last couple of weeks. We've been so busy. Korbin with a surprised voice said, 'Wow, Mom that's like a new record for you!'. 

Gotta love that boy. It was sad to see our holiday come to an end and everything else begin again. I especially miss having my mom and sister around. 

Fun new things have started for us this year job/job offer, basketball/coaching, unexpected Christmas gifts, New Year's resolutions and much more. 

Then again what's another 3 weeks before I start blogging again:).