Charlie Brown Almanza

As stated in Gabe's Birthday post, he is obsessed with Charlie Brown.  He loves to watch all Charlie Brown shows, he loves to wear his Charlie Brown shirt, he loves his Charlie Brown character dolls,

he loves his Charlie Brown books,

his bedding is even Charlie Brown.

The best is his schoolwork that he came home with...

You can see that his name is now Charlie Brown Almanza

Here is his skeleton that he colored.  You'll notice that this skeleton has a yellow shirt, black shorts, yellow socks, and brown shoes....you got it, Charlie Brown!

My Little Gabe is 7!!!!

Where has the time gone?  7 years old already?  Austin was 7 when Gabe was born and here we are now celebrating Gabe's 7th Birthday.  I just can't believe how fast the time goes.  I get excited with each milestone he reaches but at the same time I also look back and remember the milestones that have passed.  I wish I could just hold time still (sometimes, anyway haha).
Gabe is totally into Charlie Brown!  He loves to wear his Charlie Brown shirt that I made for him on Halloween.  He lives in this thing!  He sleeps in it, I have to fight with him to put on a different shirt to go to school, the second he walks in the door after school he is walking up the stairs pulling off his shirt to change back into his Charlie Brown shirt.  He is beginning to wear it out like and old blanky.  For his birthday cake we decided to do cupcakes that look like snoopy laying on his doghouse.  Gabe loved them!

Grandpa Jim, Nana, and Grandma Marci came over to celebrate with us.

Sebastian loved the frosting :)

Gabe got some toys to use with his iPad and along with that he got his very 1st iTunes card!

He was pretty excited about that.

Later that evening Auntie Marie came over to give Gabe a gift, he was in heaven!!!  She made him 2 new Charlie Brown shirts, we were able to retire his raggedy one  :)

The smile on his face says it all!  If you look closely you can see that he was watching Charlie Brown on his iPad at the time.

Happy Birthday to my sweet little guy!!

Christmas 2012!

We had our first Christmas in our new home.  Nana and Grandma Marci (my Mom) stayed the night with us on Christmas Eve.  The kids didn't wake up to terribly early, which was nice since we were up late.  They were really excited to see what Santa had left for them and if they had been good.  "Og" our Elf was a big excitement for the kiddos this year.  This was the first year that they really understood the concept.  Every morning Sebastian would come running downstairs and start looking for Og right away and get so excited when he found him.  He and Abby would tell each other all month that Santa and Og were watching and they were going to be put on the naughty list if they weren't nice.  On Christmas Eve we had them tell Og goodbye and that they would see him next year.  We wanted to make sure that Sebastian wouldn't be heart broken Christmas morning when he couldn't find him.  It all worked out well and they realized they must have been good because they were filled with joy when they saw all of the gifts.  Santa left Gabe and Sebastian each a bicycle, he left Abby a power wheels car, and Austin got Chicago Bears bedding.  After looking at what Santa had left for them it was time to move on to family gifts.  It started out slow and organized and before we knew it it was complete chaos!  I don't even remember seeing them open up half of their presents.  It was crazy, they were zipping thru presents all at the same time while we were being left in the dust trying to get the toys out of packages.  We need to come up with a better system for sure!!!

Austin's favorite present......iPhone 5!!!

and Bam the unwrapping is done!

Austin set all of his stuff up on his bed for display.  He has done this since he was a little kid.  Unfortunately I didn't get to set up the little kids stuff, they were to quick to play with all of their toys bouncing back and fourth between all of them.

Winding down time while I prepare our yummy Christmas dinner.  I made my 2nd turkey dinner and it turned out fabulous!  Getting hungry just thinking about it.  

My Honey and me!

Christmas Eve at our house!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve!  Everyone came over to our house for dinner and our traditional White Elephant Gift Exchange.  What a hoot!  We had 22 people participate in the exchange and had some great laughs!

We found these cups and thought they would be great!  They were a hit!  Scott loved them and planned to use them at a company party.  :)

Of course we had to use the picture of Vinnie again in some way and this is what we came up with.  Last year Mia opened the framed picture and wasn't to pleased.  Noah traded her and was very excited about his gift and displayed it on his desk at home.  This year she opened the present that had this T-shirt in it with the same picture, again wasn't too pleased.  Noah did some finagling so he could take the shirt from her and she could open another one, it worked.  He was now excited to have the shirt to go with his framed picture of his Cousin Vinnie.  BUT now it was Erika's turn to open a present and she stole the shirt right away from Noah.  :(  so sad..

Abby somehow got an oversized toothbrush..

We had so much fun and laughed so hard.

After everyone left we gave the kiddo's their Christmas Eve presents which of course were pajamas and slippers.

The kids went to bed and Santa came and did his thing.

Merry Christmas!

My baby is in the Nutcracker!

My baby girl loves to dance.  She had her first performance, The Nutcracker.  She was so thrilled to perform on stage.  She was super excited to get her hair curled and to wear make up.  She had a dress rehearsal which lasted for hours so she and her cute little friend needed to do something to pass the time by watching a movie on the iPad while waiting for their part.  Abby is so funny, she has a great smile until you tell her to smile for the camera and then it is completely forced.

I love this photo, it is a little hard to see but you can see Abby kneeling on the top step watching the rehearsal.

Here is the program to her first performance.  She performed in 3 different shows.  Monday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Opening Night..

This is a cast photo, Abby is in the bottom right corner.

Beautiful little Angel :)

Grandpa Jim, Nana, Grandma, Daddy, Austin, and I went to watch your performance.

Waiting to go on stage...

On stage...  (It was hard to get a good picture from backstage where I was standing)

Abby is the little Angel on the left of the small group.

She was really excited to receive roses after her performance.

She did great all 3 nights!  She loves dancing!