Christmas Day 2008

Thankfully the kids slept in on Christmas morning so Jared and I got a little more shut eye than we anticipated. I guess keeping them up so late Christmas Eve wore them out quite a bit:) So, we didn't start with presents until about 8:30 a.m., which was very nice. The first one up was Lex and as soon as the kids heard her crying in the morning they ran up the stairs to check out the goods!

First stop, the stockings. They went through all of their stuff and then of course helped Lex, Jared, and I empty ours!
Mikaela didn't really understand why she received rechargeable batteries, but she was quite excited about them nonetheless:)

After the stockings they headed into the office and screamed at the sight. Santa left all of the presents on the treadmill wrapped in Santa wrapping paper. They were so excited and dug right in.

Mikaela's big Santa item, her Barbie Diamond Castle Horse and Carriage. She LOVES it!!

Jacks' item was his Optimus Prime Transformer Battle Blaster! He LOVES it too, and can't stop going around the house hunting Decepticons.

Here's a fun gift their Baltimore cousins sent them. They couldn't stop riding these horses after they opened them! Thanks Aubrey, Evan, and Elisa!!

Christmas Eve Jackson kept saying that he hadn't bought anything for anyone in the family. To appease him Jared took him and Mikaela down to the dollar store so that they could pick out gifts for everyone in the family. Jared said it was really fun watching both of them actually think about what they wanted to get for eachother, Jared, me, and Lexie. Below is what Jackson and Mikaela picked out for Alexis from them, a baby and bottle. She is enamored with the doll and totes it around everywhere she goes! Who would have known that their dollar gift would have been such a hit!

We finished opening presents and pretty much had a lazy day after that. Jared made a yummy lunch of ham, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. We ate to our hearts content and then went out sledding in our backyard! Jared built the kids a slide out of snow from the top of our deck down to the bottom and the kids loved sledding down. We really had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Eve 2008

Growing up, Christmas Eve was always the night my family had our big dinner and celebration, but for Jared, it was always Christmas Day. In order to meld the two traditions we just do it both ways and call it good:) Hey, two fun days...who could complain about that.




And so Christmas Eve at the Dubreuil house started with a lot of prepartory work. We cleaned, brought out all the nice China (that's right I brought out my China, I've got to use it at least once a year!!) and called in our order for our dinner!! LOL!! All of you know I don't cook, so calling in our dinner was not unusual for our house, especially when our dinner was a traditional Salvadorian dish that I could NEVER make.



So the nice people at "El Nuevo Amanecer" made our dinner of Pupusas and Curtido for us and we were quite the happy campers. This is the dinner my mom always had for us on Christmas Eve and it is one tradition that I have loved passing down to my kids. My kids LOVE Pupusas and gobble them down like there is no tomorrow!

Here is the Curtido. Sorry the pic is blurry but this is a dish made up of cabbage, carrots, and onion. This goes on top of the Pupusa.

Here is the Pupusa. In El Salvador this is their equivalent to our Pizza. It is eaten all the time!

Here are the kids waiting to eat their yummy dinner!!

Even though Lex didn't have any Pupusas she still enjoyed being part at the dinner table.

Yum Yum, time to Grub!

We also have the tradition of opening up one present Christmas Eve. Here are Jax and Mickey anxiously awaiting to open up their presents.

Can you tell Jacks is not happy that I made him take one more picture before I let him open his gift! Ha Ha Ha!

Here's our smiley Lexie:)

Here she is getting into mischief with the tree!

Finally!! And here are the yearly Christmas PJ's!

If you can't read what her's says it's:

"What Santa doesn't bring me Grandma Will!" Ain't that the truth!

And so the night ended with Pj's getting put on and watching some Christmas movies until they were so tired that they were asking to go to bed! Oh what a night!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Love,

Jared, Sandra, Jacks, Mickey, and Lex

Willard Bay State Park

Saturday Night we took the kids out to Willard Bay State Park. We had seen the immense light display from the freeway and couldn't resist not stopping in. Our friend had told us that last year when she went her kids loved it, so we were sold. We loaded everyone in the car and headed off.

As soon as we pulled through the gates the kids were ecstatic They loved seeing all the different light arrangements and hearing all the Christmas music. My favorite was that we got to enjoy everything from the comfort of our car! The way it's set up is that you drive around the entire section of the state park that has the light displays and then at the end you can park and get down if you'd like. So we drove and drove and when we were all done asked the kids if they wanted to get down. I was hoping for a "No" because it was really cold (25* to be exact) but they shouted out a resounding "YES!!" Thank goodness we brought their jackets!!

We got down and were informed that we could get in line for Santa as well as for a Wagon ride. The kids wanted to do Santa first and on our way to see him they had Reindeer out for everyone to look at.

Here's the Reindeer. The kids were wondering when it was going to take off flying!! LOL!!
Here is part of our group waiting in line for Santa. My favorite is Lexie! Even though she was in her warm baby bunting I thought it might still be too cold for her. So Jared suggested he put her inside his coat with him!! What a fabulous idea! She was so toasty warm that she actually fell asleep for part of the night!!

Here's the rest of the group. Well, I should say me!! Jackson really wanted I be in the picture...I think it was just an excuse for him to use the camera:)

And here they are with Santa Claus! He was such a nice guy! The kids loved it and were so calm when they went up to him! And amazingly,when he asked what they wanted for Christmas they only said one item! NICE:)

All in all we had a great night. We never ended up doing the Wagon Ride because it was so cold and after waiting for 25 minutes we called it quits. The kids were a bit bummed but we took them out to milkshakes after and that seemed to be just fine with them! What a fun night!

It's Christmas Time

I LOVE Christmas. And I especially love all the fun scrapbooking stuff out there during this time of year. This year I've been a little crazy downloading all the free Christmas papers/elements I can find and couldn't wait to use them. So today I have royally neglected my house and created these scrapbook pages below.

On this page I used all the WONDERFUL photos that Natalie took of my kids for our Christmas card. I can't say this enough but she really is an AWESOME photographer!!
Here are pics of the kids with their finished Gingerbread Houses. They got sick the day I bought the kits and so I wouldn't let them make them until they got healthy again. I did not want all their little sickie germs on a house that they would constantly be eating!! They groaned and complained but waited it out. Finally on Monday they were healthy and they went to town! Jackson really got the concept this year of decorating it as much as possible. Mikaela on the other hand was merely interested on licking off all the frosting I piped on for her. That's why her's is a bit more bare:)

Baby Steps

Unbelievable! Alexis was our most delayed to crawl, but she sure is our earliest to WALK!! She started taking a step over Thanksgiving and as you can tell by this video has really come a long way since then. She still prefers crawling as her fastest means of transport, but I'm sure she'll be speeding along on her two little legs in no time at all. Way to go Lex!!

*Disclaimer* Please disregard my high pitched voice in the video! It's the only way I could get her to come to me:) And who knows why, but I can't get it to upload vertically. So for now just tilt your heads to get the right effect.

Christmas Tree and Ornament Tag!

Here are our trees for the Holidays:)

This year was the first year that I gave the kids their own tree and boy was that the best idea ever!! They tend to leave the bigger tree upstairs alone and they LOVE having their very own downstairs. This is their tree:) The funnest part...the Fisher Price Nativity that we set up under the tree. They constantly play with it and are nice with eachother while doing so!! Here is the main tree. When putting up this tree I realized that I gave the kids so many ornaments to put on their tree that I didn't really have any for mine!! So it looks a little bare but that's alright. I'm waiting for after Christmas sales to buy some fun stuff for next year:)

And I loved Natalie's idea of an Ornament Tag so I had to do it. There's too many ornaments I love to just have one favorite, so I decided to pick my favorite for this year. It's a tradition that whenever we go anywhere new, Jared and I try to find an ornament from that location. So, this ornament below is from our trip to Napa this summer. I thought it was so beautiful when I found it. It's a cast of an olive tree leaf dipped in gold. I loved it and was so happy remembering our fun trip when I hung it.

The Sweetest Gift of All

I've had this little Christmas outfit since Jackson was a baby. But unfortunately neither he or Mikaela ever wore it because it was way too big for them. Well, this year I pulled it out in hopes that Alexis could maybe wear it and...success! It fits! I think she looked so cute in it that I had to take a picture. Of course the beanie and booties stayed on for a total of five minutes of the day, but at least I captured the moment! And just like the shirt says, Lex really is our "Sweetest Gift of All."

A Tag from Natalie...

Natalie's was so fun to read that I couldn't resist doing the tag:) Here goes...

Five things I was doing ten years ago...
1. Studying my butt off as impending first semester finals at BYU were close at hand.
2. Loving living in DT!! Got to love the dorms!
3. Being one of my older bro's groupies...I think I went to every gig his band played!
4. Really enjoying living on my own for the first time.
5. Experiencing my first snowfall! I remember running out the first time the snow fell hard in Provo and staying out there with my friends just watching it come down.

Five things on my to-do list today...
1. Put away our duffel bags from our weekend trip.
2. Get out some Christmas decorations.
3. Finish picking up dishes from dinner.
4. Start making a Christmas list of what the kids might like this year. I haven't done any Christmas shopping, let alone thinking as to what will be purchased this year!
5. Go to Sleep!!

Five snacks I enjoy...
1. Popcorn, of any variety, except Kettle corn.
2. Crackers and cheese.
3. Twizzlers (that's considered a snack right!).
4. Granola bars.
5. Oranges/Strawberries. Since these are both fruit I just considered them as one:)

Five things I would do if I were a millionaire...
1. TRAVEL!!
2. Pay off my house.
3. Set up very nice college/mission funds for the kids.
4. Pay off ALL of our STUDENT LOANS!
5. Help extended family with anything they need;)

Five places I have lived...
1. Redwood City, CA
2. Provo, UT
3. Paris, France
4. Hoffman Estates, IL
5. Mesa, AZ

Five jobs I have had...
1. Heal Food store bagger (I re-bagged all the bulk items into smaller units...not a glamorous job but it was perfect during High School).
2. Law office secretary (I did this twice for two different firms).
3. Preschool Teacher.
4. Data Entry for Investools.
5. Technical support agent for MyFamily.com.

Five people I tag...
1. Michele C.
2. Heidi S.
3. Lanae J.
4. Tiffany W.
5. Camille H.

Have FUN!!

Weekend with the Cousins

Two weekends ago Jared and I had the opportunity to have our two nephews down from Idaho for a long weekend. My sis-in-law just gave birth to a cute little baby boy and we volunteered to take her kids so her and her hubby could get as much R&R as a newborn would allow.
Well, our weekend was eventful to say the least. We had the boys from Thursday thru Sunday and every night everyone crashed from exhaustion! I guess that's what happens when cousins play hard all day long!

Here is a pic of how I found the kids every morning. They wouldn't make a peep...just get out of bed and start playing. Their play of choice was dressing up in old costumes. Thank goodness there are enough options for everyone to dress up like they want:) This pic is a little out of order but my friend Ellie taught me some neat tricks on photoshop and I couldn't resist posting this one I did first. Here are Jacks and Colton standing in front of a plane at the Hill Aerospace Museum.

Okay now we're back in order. The first night the kids all just crashed from playing so hard, so the second night we made up for it and did a Pizza night for them. Jared made the dough and took the younger two to the store to pick out the toppings for the pizza. Then when everyone was ready they went to town. I could not believe how much cheese these kids would put on their pizza...we had to intervene a couple of time:) Nonetheless, the pizzas were great and the kids gobbled them right up.

The next day we ventured out with all five kids and took them down to the Hill Aerospace Museum. We had a great time, especially since we had our own personal tour guide, a.k.a. Jared! He knew a ton about these planes and especially some of the missles and rockets they had on display. Guess it comes with working in an Aerospace industry! The kids had a blast and their favorite thing to look at...the machine guns! Yikes!!

Here are the older three testing out the pilot ejection seat.

After the museum we came home and opted for a Movie Night. The kids picked Star Wars: Clone Wars and I must say it was pretty decent. We made popcorn and ate to our heart's content. I must say I was quite surprised at how much these kids loved our popcorn, maybe it had something to do with the stick of butter that was melted on top! YUM YUM!

We ended the weekend with church and then Jared took the kids back up to Idaho aftertwards. We had a great time and were amazed at how well Jared and I survived!

No More Training Wheels!!

Yup, you read that title right!! Jackson has learned how to ride his bike without his training wheels! Hip Hip Hooray!! It actually happened 3 weeks ago, life has just been a tad crazy and I'm barely getting a moment to write it down. We knew he was ready but he was terrified at even the thought of having his training wheels removed. We attempted it over the summer and were met with crying fits and breakdowns on his end instead of happiness. So Jared and I waited and didn't push him. Until finally 3 weeks ago. We took him out to the remotest park we could find so he wouldn't feel pressured and simply suggested taking them off. He freaked out a bit, but when we motivated him with the prospect of maybe a new toy (okay okay, I know that sounds more like a bribe...but for our sake we called it motivation) he agreed. I helped him along for maybe 10 minutes and then he just took off! I was so happy for him I started crying (if you don't know me by now I am quite a sappy mom)! The look on his face when he didn't fall down was incredible and he was having so much fun that after an hour of bike riding he didn't want to leave. And since then he has not stopped riding. It's like he found a new found freedom. Way to go Jackson...we knew you could do it! Now Daddy has a riding buddy for sure:) And sorry, no pic of his accomplishment...of course I forgot it that night!

Jackson's Awards

This week Jacks came home with two awards and we were so proud of him. At the beginning of the week he came home with the Superintendent Reading Award for completing the reading challenge given to all the kids over the summer. He was so excited he couldn't put the certificate down. To top it off he received a free game of bowling to Fat Cats with it and can't wait to go and cash that in. Then at the end of the week he received an individual award from his Kindergarten teacher for being a "Math and Letter Wizard" in class. This little award came with a short ceremony that the girls and I went to. He was so happy and kept repeating his new given title all day long! He received a fun book and a school decal with the award as well. Good job Jackson and keep up the good work at school!!

Here he is being called up and shaking his teacher's hand. And you know me...can't resist...I had to take a picture of him holding his award:)

Okay so I know this last picture has nothing to do with his awards but I had to post it anyway because I thought it was too funny and he came home with it this week as well. Can't remember which day it was, but one day this week, after coming home from school, he showed me the "Family" book he created in class. This is the first picture in his book. He has carefully drawn everyone in our family and he got us all quite acurate I might add! The funny thing is this...if you look closely there are only two people in the pic that have ears, and quite big ones to boot. Those two people are him and Jared!! Why do only they have ears? Well because the running joke in our family is that only Jackson has inherited Jared's big ears. And so as to not make him self-concious about them we always say that he has big ears just like his Dad. That way hopefully he will pride himself for his big ears instead of loathe them:) Well, I guess it has stuck, because he has given himself and Jared the biggest ears in this picture ever! Maybe not too funny for anyone else but Jared and I had the biggest laugh. I later asked him why he didn't give me, Mikaela, or Alexis ears and he said because ours are too small. Thanks Jacks!

Alexis' Favorite Spot

Lately standing at the front door has been Alexis' favorite perch in the house. Whenever I can't quite see her from the kitchen I go to the front door and 90% of the time there she is. I think it is so funny that she crawls over and just stands there looking outside:) I thought she looked too cute on this particular day so I snapped a quick picture. I think she looks as if she's wishing she could go out and play with the big kids:) I wonder what she's actually thinking!! As soon as she heard the camera click she quickly got down and crawled towards me with the biggest smile! I'm so glad I caught it just in time.

Tagged

A while ago Ellie tagged me to post the 4th picture in the 4th folder in my pictures files. Well, so here it is. However, where this picture is the 4th picture from the 4th folder, it comes from Jared's laptop, where I am working from tonight:) So not necessarily "my" pictures per se, but it'll work! Here's Jackson and Mikaela with Jared's dad, a.k.a. Pepere to them:) Mikaela was only about 2 months old and Jacks was just a bit over 2 years old. Jared's family had come out for Mikaela's baby blessing out in Arizona and stayed a while to visit. So this is just one of the many pics that were taken that weekend. I can't believe how little they look!

Halloween 2008

What a fun Halloween we had this year. Boy the kids sure did get into it! Here are a few (okay...a lot) of pictures of the fun we had this year:)

We started off with Jacks' first Halloween Parade at school the day before Halloween! He was so happy and so excited to see us sitting there waving at him. I thought he looked so cute in his Obi Wan Kenobi costume that I couldn't just take one picture! After the parade finished I quickly followed him all the way back to his classroom where I was able to get a few more shots of him and his classmates!

In the parade. If you notice he's Obi Wan Kenobi and his friend Chance is right in front of him and he's Annakin! I thought that was so picture perfect! In class. I think he said his friend sitting next to him was another Star Wars guy but I can't remember who! I guess Star Wars was the big theme for boys in his Kindergarten class this year!

His entire class! What a fun bunch!

So excited from the day before, when Jacks and Mickey woke up on Halloween morning it was all I could do to keep them from putting on their costumes early! Finally after dinner I let them get them on and we headed out into our neighborhood. We did the cul-de-sac together and then Jared and the kids continued on while I came back home with Alexis. They came home later to re-fuel and then keep on going. We stopped up at our friends house and trick-or-treated up by her neighborhood. I thougt after that they'd be done, but no such luck. So I dropped them off a couple blocks from the house and they continued on with Jared. They arrived home at 9:30 p.m.!! They were so excited and said they had the best Halloween ever. I'm so glad they had such a great time!

Before heading out into our neighborhood. I think Lexie looks so cute but I don't think she could quite balance in her costume! Oh well:)

Here's our resident Obi Wan Kenobi! He refused to take the mask off all night, despite the fact he could barely see out the eye slits. Finally when it got dark I confiscated it so he wouldn't trip!

Our cute butterfly!

Mickey has been looking forward to being a black cat since the beginning of October. Here she is giving her fiercest MEOW!
She looks quite a bit tamer here:)

So you may think there are quite a bit of pictures but they loved posing! I couldn't stop them. They kept saying "more, more!" So of course I obliged:)

Alexis was such a trooper. She loved being out looking out at everyone as long as Daddy was holding her tight! She had quite a long night but was great the whole time.Trick-or-Treat!!