Christmas Day

Christmas morning was funny at our house. Trevor woke up about 6:30 and I (Amy) looked at the clock and thought go back to bed its too early. Well, Trevor must have read my thoughts because that is exactly what he did. He went back to bed until 7:45. Yeah! Sean and I were glad since we did not get to bed until about 1:30 am. Once he woke up the second time we all had to wake up Hayley. She really did not want to get out of bed, but did want to see what Santa brought her.

I got into place in the living room so that I could capture the kids expressions as they saw what Santa brought them. Trevor was my favorite because he was too focused on what Santa brought Hayley that he didn't even see his gift on the ottoman.

Once he noticed it though it was all smiles. He had asked Santa for a game for the Nintendo DS, but forgot to ask Santa for the actual DS console. When we were looking at Christmas lights in Livermore, we came across a house that had Santa out front and Trevor made sure to get his FINAL wish in before Christmas Eve. Luckily for Trevor, the elves were able to make what he wished for despite the short notice.

After the kids opened the gifts from Sean and I, this is how Trevor spent the next hour or so. He was so happy that he finally got a DS. He was also fortunate enough to have received several gift cards for Christmas so that he can buy the games he likes. Thanks to the Montoya Family, Grammy/Papa Bear, Grandma/Grandpa, Auntie Karen, Joe and Evelyn, and Great-Grandma/Great-Grandpa Krauss.

The kids got new pajamas from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Johnson. We let them open this gift on Christmas Eve and they wore them to bed that night. They both wanted to wake up Christmas morning in their new pajamas. Thanks for such a cool gift!

Hayley asked Santa for a Diego Animal Rescue Center and Baby Dolls (twins). Again, Santa and the elves created just what she wished for. Hayley loves her baby dolls and spent most of Christmas pushing them in the stroller, putting them to bed in their crib and asking mom to change the baby doll's dirty diaper. Baby dolls sure do need lots of diaper changes. I counted 6 times in 2 hours. Yikes! When her babies were sleeping she played with her Animal Rescue Center. It was really neat that the helicopter spins if you press the bird's nest on top of the Rescue Center, but as you do so the Diego theme song plays. Needless to say this was one of Hayley's favorite things to do. We finally had to tell her to stop so she did not wake the babies.

Santa even remembered to bring our dog, Boo, a gift. He got several new rope chew toys. Sean had fun throwing the rope and watching Boo slide across our hardwood floor to catch it.


After we had our family Christmas we went to Amy's Uncle Joe and Aunt Evelyn's to spend the afternoon with the Krauss family. It was a very special Christmas as Cousin Scott, who is a Firefighter, and Cousin Dan, the Police officer were both able to be there. This does not happen often at the holidays due to their work, so this year was extra special. We also did something different this year. Instead of drawing names and buying each other gifts like we have always done we decided to draw names and write cards or letters to that person telling them how much we appreciate them being a part of the family, telling them what they mean to us, or just sharing a wonderful Christmas story with them. This was so powerful for all involved and I think it is new tradition for the Krauss Family. Thank you Vanessa/Evelyn for thinking of and making this happen.

We hope that everyone who reads this had a wonderful Christmas. We pray that the New Year will being many blessings your way. Always remember that God loves you and so do we.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to Santana Row in San Jose to have dinner at Maggiano's. In the courtyard near the restaurant was this enormous Christmas Tree, so of course we had to take a family photo. Thank you Auntie Karen for stepping in as the unpaid photographer.

Here is the kids in front of Maggiano's. We really like this picture and not only because the kids have matching Disney outfits, but because their smiles are so cute.

Since it was taking so long to get our check after dinner, Trevor and Nora left the restaurant with Adrianne and Daymon. They originally planned to take a walk around the courtyard, but then they spotted this playground. It was funny to see the kids all dressed up sliding down the slide. Poor Hayley missed out on the fun because Mom made her stay inside. Sorry!

After dinner, which happen to take 2.5 hours due to how busy Maggiano's was, we went back to Gary and Adrianne's house for dessert. Here is Trevor and Hayley with their cousin Nora. The girls looked so pretty and Trevor so handsome. It was a struggle to get the girls, both 3, to stand still long enough to take the picture. The girls were trying to play dress up and the picture taking was cramping their style.

Here is little Miss Hayley strutting her stuff. Since, this was Nora's Grandma's house the girls got to play with Nora's dress up clothes. Hayley didn't even care that she already had one dress on when she decided to put the sequence skirt on. The sunglasses and feather boa make the outfit, though.

Nora was all about the shoes and purse. She had the shoes from Disney's Enchanted Movie on and her purple purse. Notice her model pose. It was so fun to watch the girls play. Nora ended up getting a trunk full of dress up clothes from Hayley's Grandma and Hayley got one from Trevor. The perfect gift for the little beauties.

Christmas Lights in Livermore

On Saturday we went to Livermore to see Christmas Lights. We made sure to bring the camera so we could our pictures with this beautiful water fountain situated on the corner of 1st street and S. Livermore. It is very pretty during the day and even more so at night with all the colored lights.

In this picture you can see some of the gazebo that surrounds the water fountain. The lights at this time of year only go between red and green, but normally they are purple, yellow, red/pink, blue, and green. It is very nice to see.

One of the houses we went to has been displaying Christmas Lights every year for the past 25 years. Every year has a different theme and the front yard for this house is turned into a Winter Wonderland, complete with Christmas store fronts, a huge nativity scene in the front window and thousands of lights.

This year the house and its surrounding trees had 278,600 lights. They people who decorate this house start in September in order for the display to be ready. It was so amazing to see. This will definitely be one our list to check out each year. We found out about this house from the website www.lightsofthevalley.com

We drove through another neighborhood that was decorated, but did not get out of the car as it was too cold. My favorite house was the one with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Trevor's favorite was the one with SpongeBob Squarepants. The picture with Mickey and Minnie turned out blurry. Next year we will have to get out and walk.

The new Dew!

Trevor got his hair cut this past weekend and was so happy that we let him choose the style.



So what did he choose.....










Spiked!

This is how it looked when he left Great Clips. He wanted it cut so that he could spike it. The stylist showed him how to spike all of it or just the front. We even had to make a special trip to Target to get Super Spikes Styling Gel: Fast Dying and Extreme Hold.

He prefers to have it all spiked. This is even how he wanted to wear it for Church on Sunday. We were doing the Advent reading and he knew everyone would get to see his "new dew" since he would be up on stage.

More funny Sleeping Pictures

The other day Hayley decided she wanted to take a nap, but not in her bed. So she went to her room got her pillow, blanket and Diego doll and fell asleep on our living room floor. Sean moved her to her bed after a bit, but made sure to get the picture first. Great thinking Dad!

The very next day when Sean went into Hayley room to wake her up he found her like this. She loves to have her baby dolls in her bed with her. It is not uncommon to find at least 6 or more in the bed each night. Even if we put all of them in the baby playpen before tucking her into bed, when we get Hayley in the morning they are with her. Before falling asleep Hayley climbs out of bed and makes sure her babies are "comfortable" as she says. Diego is by far her favorite.

Gingerbread Houses

On Sunday Dec. 16 we decided to finally put our Gingerbread houses together. Sean and Hayley were on a team and Trevor and Mom were the other team. This was Hayley's first time making Gingerbread houses and we think it may have even been Trevor's first time as well.

Hayley really enjoyed putting one candy on the Gingerbread House and one piece of candy in her mouth. She would not stop eating the icing off the roof or snowmen.

Trevor was really good at placing the candy just right. He made sure to use the same color on the roof and windows.

Here are the finished products. Hayley's on the left and Trevor's on the right. Other than the icing being extremely hard to get out of the bag, everyone had a good time creating the Gingerbread Houses. This will become a family tradition.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Kids are funny when they sleep...

After Movie Night on November 23, Trevor came home tired and changed into his pajamas. He then proceeded to climb onto the couch and fall asleep not caring that things were in his way. He must have tired to fall asleep there and to have picked such mixed matched pajamas and socks.

Now for the funny story of Miss Hayley. When we put her to bed she was covered by her fleece blanket Aunt Evelyn made her last Christmas and a pink afghan Sandra Nachand (Nana) made her. Now you ask where are the blankets? The fleece blanket is down below her feet (you can see a little bit of it int he upper left corner) and the pink blanket is in Hayley's favorite new hiding spot when she sleeps. Any Guesses.... come one just try.....

The pink afghan is stuffed into her pants. Yes, the entire afghan has been stuffed down her pants and is causing the huge bulge in the back of her pants. That is not her bottom, but the pink afghan. Not sure why she does this, but almost every night when we go to say good night one more time we have to take the afghan out of her pajama bottoms. She does not even wake up when we do so, which is odd considering we are laughing so much.
(If we can get a better picture to post, we will!)

Our Christmas Tree Story

On Friday, December 7 we decorated our Christmas Tree. The kids put on the ornaments as we took them out of the boxes. Little did we know that Miss Hayley was busy lining her ornaments up. She was putting them all so nicely on the string for the Christmas lights. We told her she could not hang them there and had to find a new place for them. Well, she did...

She moved them all to the bottom of the tree and once again lined them up so nicely.

She was so proud of herself. Trevor really enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree that had his name on them, but we have any with Hayley's name just yet. She didn't care though. Every time she hung an ornament she would say, "See this has my name on it." We will get some for her before Next Christmas when she can really read her name.

This picture does not do the tree the best justice as there are smaller glass ornaments in what appears to be the undecorated green area. You will have to come over and see for yourself.

The other side of the tree. And yes, from this side the angle looks like she is about to fall from the top of the tree. Notice the combination of Heavy Metal Rock Band Metallica (Black Ball - dad's ornament) and Cute Little Disney Character Dopey. (everywhere - mom's ornaments).

Here you can see (albeit blurry) the tree with the lights turned on. Sean went for less lights this year with only about 600 on the tree. Normally he puts on over 1000. He spends a lot of time wrapping each branch and our tree looks amazing until it is time to take it down each year. Then I spend many hours pulling the lights off all the while threatening to throw the lights out with the tree. Needless to say Sean always comes to my rescue and takes the lights off.

Trevor's Soccer Tournament

Trevor played in his 1st Soccer Tournament this weekend. It consisted of 3 games which helped determine who played the Championship Game (for 1st or 2nd place) and the Consolation Game (for 3rd and 4th place). Trevor's team played twice yesterday, winning one game 8-3 and the other game was a TIE at 2-2. They won their game this morning 4-0 and made it to the Consolation Game. Ironically the team they were to play was the team they tied yesterday. They played the best they ever had this season, but lost 2-1. This meant they were 4th place out of 12 teams total. Not to bad.

This was taken before the game this morning. The coach was running with the kids and they were loving it. They were told that they were not allowed to go faster than the coach. It was nice to see them all smiling despite the number of times they run up and down the field while warming up.

This was from their game this morning. Trevor had just helped get this ball from the boy in the blue uniform. It is was such a fun game to watch.

Each player in the Soccer league received a Trophy for playing. Our team mom also bought each kid on Trevor's team, The Underdogs, a medal. They kids we so thrilled. Now they each have a Trophy and a medal for playing as well as a medal for coming in 4th place. What a great season we had. Trevor is excited for next year, but know that a few of the players will be too old to be on his team as they turn 8 before next season.

Chef Hayley

The other night I (Amy) had the pleasure of being served pretend food created by Chef Hayley. She made my favorites: tea (but with ice so I would not burn myself) and salad. She only dropped the "food" once while bringing it to me. She quickly picked it up and put it back on the tray. Luckily the "food" was just pretend and I didn't get sick.

Trick-or-Treat Time

Obi-Wan and Snow White.
They are both asking when they can go Trick-or-Treat and Mom keeps saying smile please.

Here are the pumpkins all ready for the trick-or-treaters.

Our blond Snow White just before leaving to get candy. We had bought Hayley the Snow White Wig, but it did not properly fit on her head and made her look very funny. She said it was okay for Snow White to have "Hayley color hair."

Trevor was very excited that we were able to Trick-or-Treat with his good friend Nick and his sister Natalie. Nick was Jack Sparrow and Natalie was Cinderella. Trevor really enjoyed having a friend to Trick-or-Treat with instead of only Hayley. We are very fortunate that they live in the same neighborhood as we do.

This is Snow White on the way back home to change her shoes. She should have been Cinderella because she kept losing one shoe every few steps. Although the size seemed right the back of the shoe was so low that Hayley could not keep her foot inside. We tried putting on more pairs of socks on to make the back fit tighter, but in the end she had to just wear normal Hayley shoes. Despite the costume issues the kids had a wonderful Halloween.

Halloween Carnival

Today at Trevor's school they had a Halloween Carnival. The kids were allowed to wear their costumes. Trevor was Obi-Wan, but was not allowed to bring his Light Saber to school. Amy bought what she thought was the right size costume based on Trevor height and weight, but when it can the shoe covers were WAY TO SMALL. Thought for next year: either no show costume with shoe covers or buy a bigger costume.

There were various tables set up with different activities for the kids. The leadership class from the local High School helped at each table. Trevor visited the face painting table first.

Then he moved on to the Musical Chair Game. He finished in 2nd place.

Hayley and Sean arrived just in time for Simon Says. I have captured Hayley just after following the instruction, "Simon says, put your hands on your hips and jump up and down." Hayley must have heard "Simon says, put your hands on your hips and jump up and down with your tongue sticking out."

After Simon Says, Hayley wanted a butterfly painted on her face. She said that it tickled when the girl painted the butterfly.

Just before the parade was to start Trevor and his classroom buddy Mateo (red shirt) got wrapped up like a Mummy. Once wrapped up they had to hop to the finish line. Mateo was the winner of the race.

Then came the very unorganized parade for the K-3 grade classes. The teachers did not know the parade path and some can passed us twice. The principal was supposed to be leading the parade, but some of the teachers did not follow properly. It was nice to see all the costumes they kids were wearing though.