Lincoln's November and December School Work

Lincoln has been balancing school and karate still. He is really loving karate and continues to advance in the ranks.

Logan's November and December School Work

Well, with the move and everything else going on, I clearly got behind on blogging school work. It's a great time of year because they bring home such cute holiday art work. Here's what the boys have been up to.

This wasn't something he actually did at school, he did it for me on a post-it note in my office. I wrote mom and he made his signature little guy. I love it. It's now found it's permanent spot on the front of my laptop.

 Logan's train.

This is a drawing Logan did in church last week. Can you guess who it is?  Of course, it's Baymax from Big Hero 6.

Tis' the Season

It has been a bit hard this year to really be festive for the holidays. We moved into our rental the week before Thanksgiving, we are living out of boxes and suitcases and all our Christmas decorations are in storage. I was going to pull out our small fake tree but with everything else going on, it's just not going to happen. We will be spending Christmas morning with Aunt Natalee anyway so we will be able to enjoy her Christmas atmosphere. I know one could argue that Christmas decorations, trees and lights are a waste of money but after not having mine out this year, I realized how much they really do help to set the tone and contribute to this special time of year.

We did make a point still to go see Santa with the boys. We had the best Santa experience this year. We found Santa at a non busy shopping center where he had an indoor and we only had to wait about 15 minutes. The boys both sat with Santa and told him what they wanted. Lincoln requested a nutcracker, some Minecraft guys and new bedding. Logan asked for...wait for it......trains! What a surprise. I wasn't going to buy the picture but the boys both had super cute smiles so j couldn't pass it up. I realize I don't have too many more years where they will want a picture with Santa.

The other fun tradition that is alive and well in our home is our Elf on the Shelf....Elfie came back for a visit. I decided our elf should step it up a notch this year and luckily he has. He has even found us in San Diego, Ojai and when the boys slept over at our neighbors he found them their too. Elfie has also been a bit more mischievous this year and the boys have loved waking up in the morning to find out what Elfie's been up to.  My favorite is when the boys talk to Elfie and tattle on each to Elfie so that he will tell Santa. Lincoln has also written Elfie a couple notes for him and Santa too. It's super cute. I definitely don't need one more thing in my plate but it sure seems to make the boys happy so it makes it worth it. 

 Grandma Tutu got the boys a Star Wars advent calendar and they look forward to opening the surprise each day. 

Yes, that's the real deal...the real Santa...and we know him.  Ricky is actually in business with him. He visits kids at home or parties and Ricky is the photographer that accompanies him. It's their first year in business together but something they could potentially do for the next few years. This is our friend Sadie Schreiber that is posing with Santa (uncle Lee Phillips) for Rick's business cards. 

 These are just a few of the funny things we've woken up to our Elf doing. 

Ojai Trip

My last surviving grandparent, Grandpa Darel Eppich, passed away on November 21st. He was married to my Mom's mom, Sally. Even though he was not my biological grandfather, I've known him as my grandpa my entire life. They lived in Lancaster, CA and I have many fond memories visiting their house as a child. It is there that I would get to see my cousins, hang out and watch cable TV in the den and spend time with the extended family.

Due to some scheduling issues, we weren't able to attend his funeral but we were able to make a quick trip to CA for a family gathering a couple days later. We gathered at Aunt Alice's home in Ojai where I saw cousins, Aunts and Uncles that I haven't seen in probably six or seven years. Most of them had not met the boys previously. We had a wonderful time visiting and celebrating together.

Aunt Alice had lots of activities for the boys and their favorite part was camping in her fifth wheel trailer. It was nice for Ricky and I because I felt like the boys were actually old enough to play and entertain themselves for the most part. We enjoyed delicious food, a gingerbread decorating contest, a poem about healing/moving on, football, a walk in the lemon orchards and family games.

It was a last minute decision to go and was a long nine hour drive each way but I'm really glad we made the choice to go. Unfortunately I got super sick the day we were driving home and I sat with a barf bowl in my lap for the entire drive. It was a very long nine hours home. I'm still glad we went. It's a good reminder that our days on this earth are limited and we should enjoy family, friends and life while we can.

 Lincoln chillin' out to music on his iPad on the drive over. Hard to believe he's only 7...he thinks he's a teenager. 

 Ojai is somewhere I often visited as I was growing up so it's always a place I love to visit. 

 The boys in the camper...AKA "the fort." 

 On our walk in the lemon fields. I love seeing the beautiful mountains right next to us. 

 Grammy helped Logan decorate his awesome cookie!

 Lincoln won the prize for "best total package". I think he's too young to realize the pun behind the placement of that package decoration but one day he will look back at this picture and just laugh...we did!

Logan was so proud of his gingerbread man but his favorite part was eating all the candy as he decorated. 

 Everyone admiring the works of art before the winners were announced. 

 Ricky and Jared sporting their festive holiday glasses.

 Logan won the Stop sign for his job in the cookie contest and he couldn't be happier with it. He loves signs. 

Mom (Kree), Uncle Kim, Aunt Gail, and Aunt Alice (missing was Uncle Jess)

Christmas Concert

In early December we attended the boys school Christmas Concert.  It's an exciting time for the kids and also for the parents to see their little stars. Luckily for us both the pre-k and the second graders were performing on the same night, back to back, which made it easy on the calendar but made for a long night for the boys. Logan's class sang four songs and Lincoln's class had a full presentation that lasted about 45 minutes. Since music is such a big part of our lives, it was a joy to watch them participate in the this event. Who knows, maybe one day we will be sitting at a high school choir concert for them. They both did great and it was the perfect way to kick off the holiday season for us.

Thanksgiving

Considering that we had just moved out of home and into our rental a week before Thanksgiving, we were really in no position to be hosting or cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner. For the first time we went out to dinner for Thanksgiving. We had reservations at Mimi's Cafe.  It worked out very nicely. We were able to get some organizing done in the morning, visited the property to see the house, we watched a bit of football and headed to dinner.  It was so nice to walk in and sit down to eat...no cooking....no cleaning up....I loved it!  It was  perfect for our little family, especially given our circumstances this year. It's always nice to celebrate with family so next year I think we will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house.

We have so many things to be thankful for. If there is one thing that I try to teach my boys it's that we we have been blessed. I am grateful for family, wonderful friends, our Savior Jesus Christ, the country that we live in, our health, our employment, the opportunity to build a home and so much more. We try to remember our blessings year round but it's always nice this time of year to have the extra focus on what we are thankful for and how we can serve others.

This was at our visit to the property. 

 My super handsome boys.

 Lincoln and Daddy at the table. 

 Mom and Logan at Thanksgiving dinner. 

Logan's Thanksgiving art.

Lincoln's turkey about a book he read.

Unfortunately we couldn't spend too much time outside even though we had beautiful weather because there was a fire burning about a mile down the road at a mulch plant. It had been burning for days and they were just going to let it burn itself out..with the help of this farm sprinkler. Needless to say, the neighboring communities were not happy that this was not given extinguished more quickly.