New Year's Eve

Originally, we had plans to spend this day with some good friends. Unfortunately, Leah woke up with the beginnings of pink eye. Brandon had it a couple of weeks ago and my wonderful pediatrician had given me an extra refill of his prescription just incase one of the other kids got it. So as soon as I saw the blood shot look in her eyes, I started the drops and it cleared up quite quickly. So instead of hanging out with friends, we decided to make the most of the day and have a family outing. We started out at Boston Market for lunch (yum), then headed over to Best Buy so Paul could check out some speaker systems that he's hoping to get for our TV someday (soon hopefully). Then we decided to bag naptime and headed down to the LA zoo for the afternoon. After the zoo, we stopped at Krispy Kreme to take FULL advantage of the holiday "glutany". Once home, we got the boys down to bed and watched Toy Story 3 (a first for me. It was quite good, but no I did not cry). A little before nine, we tuned into the local TV station and counted down with New York City's ball drop. We toasted with some sparkling cider and called it a night. I know what you're thinking...we're such party animals huh! But hey, it's seriously more than we've ever done on New Year's Eve, so in a way, we were party animals! I'm sure it will get more exciting as the kids get older.

Seriously! Have you ever seen a wolf at the Zoo? I haven't. But it was COOL!

It wouldn't be a family outing, with out at least one kid meltdown right? At least that's the way it goes in our family.

This Hippo is HUGE! And we got to watch him walk all the way across his habitat. It took him a while.

Ok, if this is not the cutest most handsome face you have ever seen, than I don't know what is!

The weather was nice and cool, so a lot of the animals were out. It was fun to see so many walking around instead of laying around or hiding from the heat.

The elephant exhibit is awesome and SO big. And the greatest part is that you can see it from quite a few vantage points. VERY nice!

Photo with Daddy. You can see Brandon is still protesting his picture being taken.

Photo with Mommy. Daddy tricked Brandon here, that's why he's looking at the camera. Sneaky Daddy!

Not really sure how this fits in at the zoo, but it was a nice photo op.

Doing the countdown!

Cheers! (not sure why this decided to be underlined)

WELCOME 2011! I can't wait to see what this year brings us!

Carter's Baby Blessing

The day after Christmas was another busy one for our family. Since we had so much of Paul's side of the family in town, we decided it would be a nice time to bless Carter. I must admit, I was pretty worn out from Christmas and was kind of wishing we had waited to bless him on another day. But when it was all said and done, I was glad we were able to do it while Paul's family was here. That way his Dad and brother were able to be in the circle with Paul to bless little Carter. My brother also came, which was nice for me to have him there. (Thanks for remembering this time Ty.)

Unfortunately though, with all the craziness of Christmas, I didn't think to invite anyone else. So I'm really sorry if you are reading this and wondering why I didn't tell you about it. I've been a bit sleep deprived. I wasn't thinking straight.

Paul did a really nice job on the baby blessing, as usual. We are so very grateful to have this special little guy in our family. I know everyone probably says this about their own children, but I truly do feel like he was meant to be in our family. As hard as it was to be pregnant and as much as I hate labor/delivery/recovery (the whole shebang), I am so glad we have him. I couldn't be more blessed to have the children that I do. They are sweet and wonderful (and often quite crazy and sometimes naughty). They bring out the best (and the worst) in me. But they are mine and I wouldn't want it any other way!

The whole Schoeni clan (minus Steve's wife and daughter who weren't able to make it to the blessing).

Take away Pop Pop and insert my brother.

Just the six of us!

Okay, so picture taking wasn't all that smooth. I didn't care if they were both crying, I just wanted a family photo! This will just go down in the memory books as "life as usual".

Totally unrelated, but as soon as we got home, Leah changed, grabbed her 'laptop' and headed for the trampoline.

Christmas Morning 2010

It finally arrived and the girls couldn't be more excited. I heard them in their rooms a little after 7am, but had to make them wait to come out until Daddy got out of bed. It was only a few minutes later, but it was probably an eternity to them. Brandon was still snoozing, so we let him come down when he woke up. It wasn't long, before he headed down as well.

I love this picture because Leah isn't excited for her gift here, she's yelling up to Ashlyn that Santa brought her an American Girl doll!

One Happy Girl.

Leah was pretty excited for her gift too. Although she later told me she wanted a REAL laptop. What is it with my kids and expensive electronics? I blame their father. haha.....

My Happy little boy! Yes, he is MUCH happier these days, which makes me happier too!

Brandon was having so much fun playing with his toys that it literally took him ALL day to open everything. We finally had to sit him down at the end of the day and "help" him open the rest of his gifts. It was hilarious!

Here's Grammy trying to get Brandon to open another gift.

As for Carter, he had enough excitement and fell asleep about 30 minutes into our gift opening.

Grammy and Pop Pop certainly know how to spoil their grandkids. A new scooter for Leah!

Matching Christmas Dresses. I love them!

While Ashlyn spent a good portion of the day dressing up her new Julie doll in all her new outfits...

Leah spent her day dressing herself up in all her new dress up clothes, courtesy of her Uncle Steve and Aunt Soul.

One final "spoiling" for the grandkids. A "my first trampoline" for them to play on from Grammy and Pop Pop. It's just the perfect size for our backyard. Not too big, not too small and can only fit one or two kids at a time. The kids love it....especially Leah, but does that surprise anyone? Probably not. She's my little gymnast.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

All of Paul's family came into town to celebrate Christmas with us this year. We were grateful to have them come here, since there was really no way I was gonna get on a plane with four little kids two months after having a baby. So even though it was a bit crowded at our place, it really worked out quite well and I think (or rather hope) everyone had a good time.

We let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve. They got lucky and also got to open their gift from Uncle Ty and Aunt Heather, who came over with their boys to enjoy Christmas Eve dinner with us.

Once again, Brandon was not too happy with me taking his picture.

But after he opened his gift, he didn't seem to notice that I snapped another one of him. He has been watching his sisters get zhu zhu pets for the past year. He finally got one of his own. His name is Rockie and he scurries around our house quite frequently these days.

Leah sporting her new jammies.

Ashlyn in hers.

Santa came! Here it is all set up and ready for the girls to come down Christmas morning.

Copper Hill Christmas Lights

I'm so very far behind in my blogging. I will attempt to catch up just a bit.

The Tuesday, scratch that, the THURSDAY before Christmas we met up with some friends to go look at Christmas lights. Last year we went to the same place together and loved it, so it is becoming a tradition. The whole street is decked out in lights and you can walk around and take pictures at your own pace. The kids have a blast being with friends (and so do I) and it definitely gets me in the holiday spirit. Here are a few pictures from the evening.