Our Christmas letter

For those who didn't receive the email, here's a copy of our holiday letter:

To all our friends and family,

We hope you all are doing well and the past year was overall good.

We're doing well and the children are growing so fast.

Justin is almost 7 years old and doing great in school. He can be a little bossy over his siblings and likes things just the way he thinks they should be. He's been proving to be super smart in school - reading at a 3rd grade level now and doing great at math too. He's been active in Cub Scouts and just finished up another season of soccer.

Paige is 5.5 years old. Still a princess and loves everything girlie. She is quite social in school and seems to be loved by all the children in her classes (and other classes too). Her teacher says she can be chatty at times but a good student overall and seems to be really excelling in math. She's doing great in gymnastics - this winter she'll be moving up to the next level and be a class with all 7-8 year olds. The teachers said she simply can't stay in her age group any longer.

Faith Anne is 2 and very proud of this. She's still the obvious baby of our family and can try to pull the spoiled baby thing every once in a while. She's a joy to be around - a very happy child for the most part. She loves to follow her siblings around - especially Paige because paige will play dress up with her and all sorts of pretend games. She's already into princesses and purses and dress-up shoes! Her speech has improved a little and we're still working on getting her into a speech program so we will be able to understand most of what she says. Like her big sister, she loves art too.

In October we got Disneyland passes for some family fun over the next year. We've already gone a few times and the kids have such a great time! The big kids will be taking ceramics this winter at our recreation center and are looking forward to it.

As for us parents, not much is new. We seem to have busy days between all the kids activities and our activities - before we know it, another week has passed. We both are still in our same places of work and are doing well.

We hope the holiday season is pleasant for all of you. Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate the birth of Jesus at this time of year. Happy new year to all and we hope and pray the next year is a wonderful one everyone.

With joy and love,
our family to yours.

Faithie Annie - the curious 2 year old!

Our littlest princess is a joy and loves to discover things. We were at a park not far from here last week because Paige had a modeling shoot. Justin and Faith played at the park while Paige was busy.
Faith discovered that she could turn on this little facet and was overjoyed!

DECEMBER

December flew by in a flash! Here it is a few days before Christmas and it seems we were just celebrating Faith's birthday!

There were tons of activities this month between parties and school activities.

Enjoy the photos

Playing on Daddy- The girls love playing horsie on their daddy.


Justin showing off some fleece pants I made him




Justin and Paige decided to take some pictures the other day.




Justin at school


Christmas photos - sometimes getting 3 children to be still and take a photo together can be a challenge. Last weekend I realized we still needed a photo of the 3 of them for cards/emails. I had just returned home from working all night and they were almost ready for church. I helped Jason get them dressed and everyone's hair brushed after their baths/showers and took them outside. The sun was bright and bugging Justin and Faith's eyes. The older kids wanted to bend down to be near Faith's face but she would just copy them and bend down too. In the end, we did get a few good pictures.










Paige showing off her dress that I made her the day before.




Sisters


Faithie wanted a picture of her hugging her animals

Rest of November

I guess I got busy and haven't updated things here in a long time.

November went by in a rush it seems. School, 2 kids playing soccer and then Thanksgiving... before we knew it, it was Christmas season!

Paige did a modeling shoot for Petco this month - keep an eye out for her in their Spring mailer.

This site has had some changes and the photos need to be smaller now - I'm changing the photo size starting with this post but for older ones, I think if you click on the photos, they'll show full size (if they are full size you'll see a frame around the edges).

Paige had Indian day at school:




A winter trip to Disneyland to see all the Christmas decorations - it was lots of fun except for the one day when Faith's tummy wasn't feeling so well and the day ended with a massive 2 year old blow-out!







Faithie Annie - Princess warrior!

FAITH IS 2 YEARS OLD!

Hard to believe that our "baby" is now 2.
She knew it was a special day for her and loved hearing the "Happy Birthday" song being sung to her. She didn't even nap today - just chattered away the whole time and sang songs.

She loved her new 2 year old shirt. She's trying really hard to do 2 fingers up, but it's not easy.

We had an early dinner as a family to celebrate and then came home to open her gifts.
Faith loved seeing herself on the video camera.


After her long day she fell asleep very quickly - despite saying that she wasn't ready for bed yet.

End of October picture

The night before, Justin asked if I'd make them matching pumpkin shirts. He wanted to match. I wasn't going to- I was tired. But then I thought my days are numbered of him ASKING to match his sisters for school.
They loved their shirts

Fall Party

Last night (Sat) was our annual Fall Fling party with friends from church. We let the kids dress up if they want - kind of an alternative for those who don't do Halloween.

We got home from LA around 1pm and I had to make P's costume still. I started following the pattern but after a bit decided my way would be faster. P is very happy with the way it turned out!


Of course we had to dress up Faith too. In this picture she's in 100% hand-me-downs from P but she likes that :) She was calling herself "bfly dance dance" -- I guess a dancing butterfly. She loves to get things out of the dress up box.


Justin did briefly wear a racecar driver outfit but then decided to change and play ball with the boys in the yard --- so no pictures of him - he was too busy.

Disneyland!

We decided to get passes for the year and enjoy some family time at Disneyland. The kids were off for 2 weeks for fall break, so we went for 2 days after we got back from Texas. We went again last week while the kids and J were off due to the fires and once we knew our house was safe.





P and her Daddy. I love this picture


Faith wasn't feeling a 100%.

But she LOVED this piano in Toontown (despite being around 9pm and not sleeping much in 2 days)

Faith met Mickey with Daddy while I was on a ride with the big kids. she wasn't too sure about the giant mouse, but not scared.

Texas Trip

October was a busy month for us (I know it's not over yet).
First we went to Texas to visit J's family. The kids had a great time.

The first night there they caught frogs - Paige didn't like that once it pee'd on her.

Make cookies with Grandma

Go fishing on Grandpa's boat

A fun K' event at the kids' school is "Teddy Bear Picnic" - the kids have lunch with thier parents on the front lawn during lunch time. Paige LOVED this!


Soccer season is here! Paige is playing this year too. Her team is the Green Mermaids and she's loving playing with the other girls. It's not very competitive at this age level but she's doing quite well. I guess she has a good clue on what to do after watching her brother for 2 years. She did a great job scoring goals or getting close to it this week. Here's some pictures of her.


Justin's team is the Dragons. He's playing in the under 8 group and is one of the younger kids on his team. Some members don't pay attention all that well and can be a little rough at times. Jason is coaching the team, which can be a challenge at times for him. Justin's team won their first game on Saturday and Justin did great running the full field in the heat and staying after the ball.

Faithie gets to hang out during soccer games. She really likes having her own little chair to sit in and says "GO TEAM!" or YEAHH!




Justin joined Cub Scouts this fall too. He really enjoys it and is super proud of his uniform. It's a little big but has to last him through 3rd grade.


Today (Sunday) is soccer picture day. I managed to get the 2 kids together for a few quick pictures. Justin doesn't like the bright sun in his eyes so the pictures are a little dark.

This week Justin lost 2 teeth. They have been loose for a VERY long time. He lost the first one at school one afternoon (Friday) and then lost the bottom one the next day (Saturday). He's quite proud of his lost teeth and the tooth fairy got some good flying time to our house.

1st day of school today for the big kids.

Both were very excited and thier teachers seem to be very nice.

Today was the last day of summer vaccation for the big kids - tomorrow they start school. They are super excited but I wanted to do something extra fun today, so we went to the beach for the morning.
It has been HOT here this week and a get away sounded good. When we arrived at the beach (around 9am) it was overcast and the temperture was just perfect. By 10:30 it was getting quite warm and sunny. We had lunch there and then played in the water some more. By noon it was pretty warm and time for us to come home and get our school stuff together.

I wasn't sure how Faith would do becuase in the past she hasn't been a big fan of the sand, but she had a great time (but by 11:30 she was pretty much done). The first 1.5 hours the sand wasn't hot yet and she loved running up and down the beach. It wasn't crowded at all yet and there were a few other moms there with babies under 18 months - she was having fun being in charge of those a little younger than her.


Eventually she decided to go and see what Justin and Paige were doing in the sand, near the water.
She got braver and would sit in the puddles with Paige. She had a great time doing this. At first she was very annoyed if the water came up to her spot - eventually she liked it and was also having fun running from the water.

Justin built some sand hills and castles.

It's hard to believe that summer vaccation is almost over! Of course, here in S.Ca, it'll be "summer" for a few more months, but soon days of nothing to do will be over in our home.

The big kids start school on Aug 15th. Paige is getting very excited about starting Kindergarden and Jusitn is looking forward to showing her the ropes so to speak. This year will be alittle different because they are changing the K' from 3/4 day to "full" day. This only adds an hour and 45 mins to the day from last year, but will make it not so rushed and actually overall, smaller classes.

Paige didn't get the teacher Jusitn had last year - she got the new teacher (due to no longer having moring/afternoon with a combined middle day time, they had to hire one more teacher to make the classes overall smaller). We're hoping she's great. We'll find out Jusitn's class on the first day of school.

(old pictures not here anymore)

Justin swimming- he doesn't go in the water without his goggles!


We met up with my friend and her kids visiting from AZ - I didnt' get pictures of any of the other kids but it was Faith's first time at the beach since walking... she enjoyed it for the most part but was done after about 45 mins.

We visited my parents for a few days last week. The kids did lots of swimming and got worn out. Then they got to watch cable TV - all 3 of them on the couch - trying not to fall asleep!

CAMPING

We finally got to go camping. really the summer is flying by. The big kids are only off for about 5.5 weeks and it seems something is happening almost every week. They're having fun with it all.

We went camping in the mountains near us. It was warm and VERY dusty with a lot of flies. The flies really bugged Faith - mainly because she doesn't know how to get them out of her face. The kids did have lots of fun.
On a hike. The view was lovely, but it was a little hot outside of the shade.

A lot of trees had these woodpecker holes in them with lots of acorns stuffed into the holes. Justin really found these interesting (so did us grownups)

The 2nd day we were all a little bored so we drove into Julian via the back route. It wasn't too far and a lovely drive. J got a little sick and spent most of this time in the car, but the kids and I had some fun in the town.

Summer Beach Days... The kids love going to the beach. Faith isn't too crazy about it, so we try to do it on a day that she's not with us. The kids had a blast this day.

4th of JULY

I worked July 3rd at night so I took a nap in the morning and the kids had daddy time. Then in the late afternoon we went to our friends' house for an annual party. The kids had so much fun!

They had a game where the kids (and later dads) had to try to get an Oreo cookie off their foreheads. Justin was appalled that they even asked him to lick an Oreo and put it on his face, but Paige was all game for it!

June 22 - Paige's BIRTHDAY!

Paige's birthday was today - she's 5 now and very happy. Our shy girl has been telling everyone. We spent the morning getting things together for her small birthday party tomorrow. After getting Justin, we went to Costco for icecream and a few final things. Then home to straighten up. Once daddy came home, we went to eat dinner at the Origional Roadhouse Grill near us - the kids love this place b/c of the peanuts they have - seriously, I don't think they'd mind not having dinner at all when we go here, but it was P's choice.


After dinner we walked to Target to do a little family shopping and then back to the car and came home to open some presents. She already opened the ones from her grandparents - so, tonight was just from us and her uncle.

Pictures of our week...

Tuesday: Justin was at school and the girls were watching a show on TV. Paige likes to lay down with blankets - even when 85 outside.

Faithie is in love with babies right now. Lucky for her, Paige was at this age too and we have TONS of babies here. For some reason she prefers the babies to not be wearing clothes. I asked her to smile and she refused... but as soon as the flash went off she did her "CHEESE" face

Wednesday: Justin was still in school but he had a picnic today. The girls and I went to join him for lunch and then we picked up daddy and went to the fair for a looking day (no rides). The kids definately didn't enjoy this day as much as ride day but they did get to do shopping time. Faith was much braver this time around and checked out the animals a bit.



Thursday: Justin had a regular day at school so the girls and I went to the mall. Paige was super happy because the lady at the makeup counter put on some pretty lip gloss for her. afterwards, we had lunch and then picked up Justin. One of the boys was celebrating his birthday and had cupcakes for everyone. After that we went to the dentist (good checkup).




Friday- Justin's last day of Kindergarden! He's quite excited and it's hard sharing the day with P's birthday. The teacher gave them bubbles and the kids ran around for about an hour blowing bubbles and just playing. Justin had an excellent report card- almost all O's for outstanding - only one G (good) and that was for penmanship. He does very well in school.

Summer Fair Time!

I picked up the kids a little early from school (meaning like 11:30 since they only go half days) and we went to the fair for ride day. The fair has wrist bands you can purchase for unlimited riding on Wed/Thurs - which is what we did. The kids had a BLAST!

It was TONS of fun but so tiring just being up standing for so long (almost 8 hours!!!). Everyone was tired by the end of the day.

I was concerned about taking Faith with us since she's not a very good listener at this stage, but it seems she gets shy/overwhelmed with large crowds because she refused to come out of her stroller. She kept trying to get back in when I took her out and then she'd put her hand over the seat belt and say NO! it made it much easier for me.
What Faith did all day (eat and drink and be merry):

We'll all go back another day next week (with Daddy) for exhibit day -to look at all the stuff but not do rides.

A cool thing they had - a market. The kids got a shopping list with 4 items on it such as "cow, chicken, wheat, beans" - then had to find 4 items that had these things in it - such as cheese for cow or eggs for chicken, etc. It was a good practical learning thing and the kids loved it.

It's feeling like summer is here - today was hot as I left work at 9am - a sign that a warm day is comming and it did. The big kids went swimming for a bit and Faithie played with bubbles.

We got Faith's proofs back from her 18 mth pictures (at almost 19 mths old). Some of my favorites.

BUSY Saturday!

J did a bike ride this morning and I made a skirt for a party later today.

Today was closing ceremonies for baseball and Justin got his award. He was so proud of himself!

After the awards ceremony we went to Olive Garden for lunch. The place was pretty empty- making for a nice meal and the kids were all well behaved.

We came home, changed Justin's clothes and then went to the party for his friend. She seemed to like the skirt and Justin had fun with his friends. I'm completely exhausted now... Tomorrow is church, P's preschool picnic, and work for me.

Tonight was the baseball team's end of season party.

Justin got the best sportsmanship award and will get to represent the team on Saturday at the closing day ceremonies. The coach did make us feel that some things are sinking in- when they handed out the awards they said a line or two about each child... for Justin (saved for last), they said a lot... that he never complained, listened well, encouraged other team players, never put anyone down or teased, and did his best to try every time and to be a good sport. Justin was the youngest on the team and also the newest to the sport - so not the best player...

After I explained to him what the coach was saying, he was super proud of himself.

Some more pictures from earlier in the month... the big kids and I went for a hike near the house. It was nice day - not too hot but not cold either. We saw all sorts of birds and bugs.

Park day!

Today was a short day for school, so after school we came home, ate lunch, and went to the park.

Justin loves Big Rock park in Santee because it has a "river" and tadpoles at this time of year. The water is almost all gone at this point, but there are still some pockets of water. Today he actually caught some tadpoles in an old bottle and was very proud of himself.

Today Faith went down the slide all by herself for the first time at the park. She's done some small ones with minimal help but this was a bigger slide and she went up the various steps and down the slide without any help. She was so excited. Unfortunately about the 7th time down, she got turned around and bonked her nose twice on the end of the slide. No bruises but she wasn't so sure after that.

Paige was busy on the monkey bars so no pictures of her - she loves to just go back and forth. Justin tried and totally missed - falling on his back. After a good 20 mins of crying and being upset we determined that he didn't truely break his back.

Faithie on the blanket before discovering the slide - in the one she's making her "Cheese" face that she makes AFTER the picture is taken. Silly baby! The other she's saying "where is it?" because there was a big dog in the park - suddenly she couldn't find it anymore.

we had fun in May.

Jason and I went on a cruise down to Mexico for our 10th anniversary. It was very nice to have some quiet time and get away.

Tuesdays are short days for the big kids. They get out at 11:45, so we often do little field trips on those days. Here are some pictures from the park and Chula Vista nature center

Justin's class had a transportation field trip - they went on a bus, trolley, farrie, and played at the park.

Faith this morning.... She was outside so I could take a few pictures of a dress I just made and stepped on a slug - she was NOT happy! I tried handing it to her but doesn't like bugs we found out.

We're back!

Life has been busy and I haven't been entering stuff as I should. But my mother has been asking for me to update so here it is :)
(HI Mom!)

School will be over in less than a month and the kids are getting ready for summer. Sometimes they don't understand that it's not summer already because we've had hot days. They've already started to swim again, but it's too cold for us big people still.

Baseball season is almost over. It's amazing to see how much our boy has changed in the past year. He can read so well and loves school. He's gotten good at baseball and just this week started riding his bike without training wheels.





Paige is still doing gymnastics and is becomming quite good. She loves all the swinging and climbing. She's a master of monkey bars now! She's super excited for K' to start next year.


Faithie Anne is a happy baby. She can be quite noisy but loves life. She's very expressive and lets her feelings be known. She loves being the baby of the family too. She makes us smile every day.

Saturday...

Justin went to Legoland with twin friends of his from school - he'll be home in a few mins.


Faith has been cracking us up with her jibberish - she understands English well but doesn't speak a word! Unfortunately none of us understand FaithieAnnish very well. The girl refuses to sign, except eat, too. The little one can sure get into trouble too.

Justin got a note sent home yesterday that had a permission slip for him to work with a special reading tutor at school. First thought was that he was doing well... then I was thinking - Maybe not - he does have a tendancy to try to just memorize words and not truely read- then I look up the program on the web and it's saying stuff about "for struggling readers in 1st, 2nd, & 3rd grades"... So, I emailed his teacher and she said that it's newly offered for K' and it's b/c he's doing super well and is beyond his classmates. He's also been choosen for a math study.

Paige - not too much- She had daddy day today and just loves it! She is super cute. The girl is so athletic and really is doing well at gymnastics lately.

an update of sorts... Here I am with a 6yr old, 4.5 yr old, and 14mth old...

We had multiple celebrations with various family members - making it birthday week. J's parents were here the weekend before his bday, then we had his bday, and then his party the week after that. At times my now 6 year old can be a challenge- the attitude can really come out at times, but overall he's a good boy. He just got an excellence award at school for being the kid who tries the hardest and overall does a great job - he was so proud to be picked out of his whole class for that!

Paige --- paige is Paige... a trouble making princess who seems to believe she's almost a teenager! She is a pretty happy girl who at times can get all bent out of shape over the littlest things. She loves dressing up, playing with dolls, and getting dirty in mud! She likes her new preschool and I think she'll do great in K' next year. I have to admit it'll be really nice to drop them both off together. Right now I'm thinking of having her go to late kindergarden (10:30-2:30), but 3 days a week I'd drop her off with Justin at 8am and she'd do K' extended care. Our school charges a flat weekly rate ($60) so to make it worth it, I'd have to use it at least 3 mornings. This would be good for me b/c I work 2 nights a week and I'd get some sleep in that way. Then I'd pick her up at 2:30 with Justin.

Faithie Anne- My happy baby girl! She's officially a toddler and already we're seeing the terrible twos. She knows she's the baby and has rights as such :) She thinks she's in charge of her siblings and it's hard not to give into her screaming at times. She gets very upset when sister (or occasionally brother) closes the bedroom door on her and kicks her out or doesn't let her join in. Last night she was in hysterics b/c Paige was touching her high chair!! Faithie was hold the high chair screaming and pushing paige - P thought this was funny - once she stepped away, she stopped. Faithie doesn't talk yet, but she definately communicates! She's super cute and charming, despite what I said above.


For me- work is going well. I still work in the hospital 1-2 nights a week and recently started doing home health visits through my hospital. I really like the home health and would love to eventually do it more as my main job and the in hospital as my secondary position but timing isn't right for that yet.

We went to a 5 year old birthday party today and Faith was so cute. She has a thing for sitting in little chairs lately and found one she loved. It was a princess party and Paige said even Faith had to dress up - so she got a little tutu and put it on over her jeans.






Justin's birthday is on Monday and he's very excited!

A few of our professional Christmas photos. These are from the proofs I got online