winter break and birthday fun

 Who doesn't like winter break?  Time off of school, cool weather (sometimes), basketball, good food, long walks, time to play games... Here we are on one of our walks to Starbucks in the morning.  I enjoy some xmas blend coffee, and the kids slurp down hot cocoa. These boys make my life so crazy and so fun.  They are always up for a long walk if it includes cocoa or going to a park.  We did both a couple of times over the two weeks off.  The boys love this stump of a tree that we always pass by.  One day they left a pine cone on it just to see how long it would stay.  On my walk a few days later, it was still there.  Little things like that make them happy.

 I guess there is no doubt now that I love our dog.  Here we are watching "Its a Wonderful Life" a couple of nights before xmas and Bill snuck a picture.

 After xmas, Bill's team played in Atascadero in a basketball tournament, and during a break between games, we headed over to our pier in Cayucos. Since I forgot my camera, almost all of these pictures were taken through instagram on my phone.  I have to give Molly the credit for getting me hooked on instagram.  I love the cool effects.

 This may be my favorite picture of Morro Bay that I have taken over the years.

 I have given up sugar for about 360 days of the year.  These are the best cookies in the world.

 Grammy got us holiday Scrabble for xmas.  You can get bonus points for making holiday words.  We disagreed about which words are "holiday" words.  Isn't "eat" a holiday word?

 Abby had a great idea for all of us to go roller skating together.  It had been a LONG time since I put on skates and it made my week (maybe my month) that I could still do it!!  Gracie is a natural and I'm so glad she enjoys it as much as I did when I was her age.

My mom and grandma were holding hands the other day during our visit and I snuck my hand in also.  Three generations...

 Here's the whole gang that went skating together. Luke didn't like it at all the first couple of times, but by the end of the second hour, he was skating around the rink without holding on at all.

 Vanessa took this sweet picture of our four girls before church started one afternoon.  Love them.

 I guess this blog is supposed to be a little about basketball also.  Since I started the Cav Crazy page on Facebook, I have focused a lot less on Bill's season on the blog.  This was a special surprise one morning to see Montclair ranked #7 above Colony in the Daily Bulletin's top ten basketball teams for the Inland Valley.

 I am trying to be better about including myself in pictures. Thanks to Gracie, who loves taking pictures, I went ahead and included this one of me and Jack.  Jack is still chewing and digging into everything. I melt when he gets so excited to see us and starts wagging that tail like crazy.

Do I really have a teenager?  Can this be?  He was the cutest baby, one of Bill's players called him the"marshmallow man" because he had so many rolls of baby fat.  He never stopped eating as a baby, and not much has changed.  I love him for the funny, happy, responsible, honest, Godly, caring brother and friend that he is.  I would want to be around him even if he wasn't my son.  I'm so thankful that God gave him to me as my first son, so that he can be a leader and example to the others.  He makes me laugh, cry, and feel so proud, all in the same day. His first toy was a basketball, and its still the thing that he loves to play with the most. I love my Dylan.

 He couldn't decide what he wanted to do for his birthday, and at the last second decided to go see "Wreck it Ralph" because Gracie still hadn't been able to see it, and he wanted to see it again.  What a great brother.

 We got Dylan a new bike for his birthday, so that meant Luke got his old one, and now Caleb gets Luke's old bike. (where is my picture of Dylan with his new bike? Next blog post!)  First Dylan, then Gracie, then Luke, and now Bill put the training wheels back on for Caleb.  He didn't like it at all at first.  He kept saying it was too old.  The pedals are covered in masking tape, but other than that, its so full of memories, he just had to start with this bike.  He warmed up to it.

Dylan doesn't mind being the oldest one whenever we get together with friends. One more thing I love about him.  Here we are one day at the park by Molly's house enjoying some In-n-out and playing with Owen.

Baby Dylan and I at Laguna Beach, 7 months old

Dylan on his first day of kindergarten, 5 years old

Dylan enjoying Sea World, 10 years old

Interview with Dylan on his thirteenth birthday:
Favorites:
Food: potatoes
color: red
toy: Legos
game: NCAA football 13 for the PS3
movie: Remember the Titans, Glory Road
I really like to wear basketball clothes.  When I grow up I want to be a basketball coach and history teacher.  I would describe myself as a good 3 point shooter.  I wish I could play NCAA division 1 basketball someday.  I love it when I do things for the worship service at church.  My favorite memory is hitting the game winning shot and hitting the game winning free throws for two of my games.  My favorite sports to play are basketball and football.  When I get older I would like to go to the NBA Hall of Fame.  I really look up to my dad, Uncle Chris, the Grows and my mom.

so this is xmas...

 On the first Sunday evening in December Daddy read everyone the Elf on the Shelf book and we eagerly awaited our elf's arrival the next morning...

They woke up to find this in scrabble letters asking them to give their elf his very own name.

 I don't remember who said it first, but Jingle made everyone happy rather quickly.  I was actually surprised it didn't take a long time to agree!

 On the first cold evening of the month we made hot cocoa and played scrabble by the fire.  Perfect evening.

 This placement of Jingle happened to turn out a little creepier looking than I had planned!  I was really not going for the horror movie look, but I think that's how it came out!

 Luke told me that this was his favorite place for Jingle to be.  He also ended up toilet papering the xmas tree, hiding in the stockings, hanging out in the sugar bowl, locked in Jack's crate, and some last minute ones that are hard to remember.  There were several mornings that I woke up and panicked because I had forgotten to put Jingle somewhere new.

 I think this was the fourth year in a row that we have gone to Logan's to watch them make candy canes.  There is nothing like a fresh candy cane piece that is still warm from the oven.

That's Uncle Joe photo bombing... gotta love him!

 Another one of the wonderful traditions that the Grows do for all the kids is letting them come and decorate gingerbread at xmas time!  I could not believe how HUGE the gingerbread men were and they tasted so wonderful.  Thanks SO much to Denise, Delena, and Vanessa for taking the time and having the patience to do such a big project!

We couldn't wait to give Owen his first xmas present from all of us.  It was easy to decide what to give him because all of my kiddos have always loved the "Little People"  toys.  Owen seemed to like them right away too.

 Another Jingle picture.. this one is my favorite.  Jingle is reading Rudolph to our Rudolph toys.  The kids didn't seem to appreciate this one as much as I did.  As Aunt Judy told me one time, "No one ever appreciates your hard work, more than yourself!"  Very true!

 Love these boys!  It will be such fun seeing them grow up together!

On Xmas morning, the kids woke up to find that the top of the stairs had been blocked by Jingle the Elf.  It was also a convenient way to make the kids wait to go downstairs until we were ready.

Jack got his own stocking too.  He enjoyed his new chew toy so much that he didn't move during the whole time that we were opening presents.

Luke and Caleb got matching "Angry Birds" beanies to wear on our trip to Atascadero.

Daddy likes to wait until Xmas morning to look at the new calendar for the year.

Back to our tradition of Daddy making homemade cinnamon rolls.  Last year our fridge was broken at this time, so it was nice to have things back to normal.

We all love college football.  Chris surprised Lori with UCLA football season tickets.  We surprised them with Washington State football t-shirts.

This year all of the cousins exchanged books.

Here all of the kids are watching one of the Jib Jab dances that Daddy made.  I think Aunt Lori was the star of this one.

Between me, Aunt Lori, Grandma, and Santa, Caleb and Luke expanded their collection of Mo Willems' books over the holidays.  I love the books because Caleb is never to shy to act one of them out, and Luke is a perfect Gerald. I feel like Piggie and Gerald are part of our family now too.