Merry Christmas

We hope you all had a happy and peaceful Christmas!
Christmas was great, we all had a good time. It was really nice, especially during these times, we are thankful that we can still provide Christmas for the kids, spend time with family and feel God's love around us!

First a video of Jaylin playing her new guitar from Auntie Joyce and Uncle Jose. She singing songs she learned at church and school. If you can't make out some of the words, she is saying, "Trust Trust in the Lord, lean not on your own understanding, in all, all of your ways acknowlege Him, He'll make your path straight." And then, "your love is deep, your love is wide." enjoy!




Christmas Eve started with church, then dinner at home. We were extra impressed with Jaylin's prayer, this time she threw in, "thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins," we think she has the gift of prayer :) The theme of the church service was, "simple Christmas," a good reminder for the reason of the season in the midst of all the stress and craziness. After dinner the kids started making sugar cookies. We didn't have any particular kind of cookie to make, just used some colored fun dough that we bought from one of Jayme's school fund raisers

Jay even jumped in and helped...

because these weren't going to cut it, I told Jaylin this Christmas tree with presents at the bottom are not going to bake like that

so he made these cute candy canes, which is next to this killer, scary looking snowman Jayme made :)

they turned out fine, but I think they ate way too many sugar cookies while watching Horton hears a who

Then Christmas morning started with reading a note from Santa. A few weeks earlier Jayme said Santa wasn't coming to our house because they were naughty...true but pretty funny she actually admitted to that. The note said even though you were a little naughty this year I still brought you a gift because I know you guys are good and have good hearts and just try to listen to your parents a little better...haha!

We usually don't go too crazy at Christmas and you'll see why later, but we did get them some boots with the fur :) Uggs from Zappos of course!

And little pet shop toys that you can go on-line and play with, similar to webkinzs...

they got a few other things, but my favorite toys are Melissa and Doug, wooden toy games/foods that you can cut, so if anyone finds good deals on these sets let me know

and stockings were filled with fake nails and PJ's

our little zappos baby got a bunch of cars and trains, hopefully his new toys will keep him from taking out all the shoes and lining them up

Don't you love this zappos product placement shot :) Jay surprised me with a new dooney and burke handbag...yes that's right Zappos now sells dooney and burke, email me for friends and family coupons:) After napping and laying around the house, we headed to Tippi and Rick's house for Christmas dinner

This is why we don't get too much for the girls, they get a ton of stuff from the rest of the family, these aren't all for them, but a very big chunk of it is! We are really blessed to have family that spoils them :) Uncle Marv calls them the Paris and Nikki Hilton of the family, especially because they love pictures...hee! Gifts included jonas brothers everything, clothes, shoes and Jaylin got her long awaited DS from Lola, now the girls can play against each other

Uncle Marv and Auntie Carrie

got them these super cute lunch boxes

The big kids were syked to get Manny shirts, straight from the Philippines from Auntie Rose and Uncle Mike

the fabulous cooks!

Food was so good, I think we all had tummy aches from eating too much!
oh and miss Jayme got a $100 bill from Lolo because Lolo promised her a cell phone if she got Straight A's and of course she did, but mom and dad aren't letting her get a cell phone just yet...so Lolo told her to put it away until her parents are ready to get her a phone, he told Jayme he wanted to keep his promise, so sweet huh! can you say spoiled? but supposedly that's how it is, grandparents love their grandkids more than their own kids, I know my parents love my kids way more than me...haha!

The day after Christmas we drove up for a quick trip to the bay to see the other side of the family...we took some family photos at the Japanese gardens, then hung out the rest of the day. The kids played white elephant and so did the adults...I think the adults were worse than the kids!

the next day we made our rounds to see some family and friends, first was baby Lauren...so so cute isn't she! The girls kept wanting to hold her, when Auntie Maureen asked if they wanted another baby, they immediately said "No!," they have a hard time with Jayson too :)

then Auntie Gail and Uncle Larry at their mansion on the hills :) They have the best daycare in the bay, Lil Stars Christian Daycare...Jayme went there when she was a toddler, that's why she is so smart, seriously their family has the gift of teaching and patience!

then to see more cousins at Kevin's birthday party...making a choo choo train with Rica and Jasmine

Then on the way home from San Jose, we made our usual stop at Casa de Fruta so I could buy some wine and to our surprise, discovered a train ride

a pretty long ride too, even went through a haunted tunnel, we'll be back here soon :)

Weekend with Grace and Ralph

December started out very nice with a visit from Grace and Ralph. The girls were very excited to have people sleep over!

We first met them at Kabuki Japanese Restaurant in Town Square, Jayson loves Uncle Rza

Then hung out at home, the kids got some early Christmas presents...

They got super cute leg warmers, scarves and beanies from Auntie Grace and Uncle Ralph

The following night was the big Pacquiao fight. After watching the fight at home, went out to Eye Candy in Mandalay Bay...we thought we might run into Manny since he was supposedly going to the same hotel just a different club

Even though we didn't get to see Manny, we did see the VP of the Philippines...don't even know his name :) just knew who he was because mom pointed him out on tv earlier during the fight...so the groupie that I am, jumped in for a picture and made Tip go with me :)
saw Gary Payton too, we took a picture for the guys, since guys don't do stuff like that :)

The following morning the girls sported their new accessories to church

Afterwards we took Grace and Ralph outlet shopping...it was a good shopping day for all of us especially since Uncle Ralph was there to help with the kids

The girls enjoyed listening to the carolers

and sampling chocolate at Godiva!
Can't wait til your next visit with Royce Auntie Grace and Uncle Ralph!

Dee's Graduation

Dee finally did it, she graduated from UNLV

The proud parents of the graduate...now they can officially say all their kids are college graduates! That's all they wanted in life, mom even cried at the ceremony

The first part of the celebration was lunch at Dee's apartment clubhouse...a bunch of bay area friends flew in just for her
Mango Cake, Jayson kept running around it and we were scared he would bite it, but I didn't think he really would, it wasn't for a long time right before we were going to cut it that he actually bit it, on the bottom left corner

I took a picture of him while telling him he was in big trouble :)

The second part of the celebration was Table Service at Blue Martini

sisters

and the third part of the celebration was dinner on the actual day of the graduation, Auntie Amanda even flew in for this one. The kids love her because she is fun! She instantly became Jayson's shooter friend. They run around pretending to shoot each other with guns, probably not the best thing to be doing, but it's funny...we're trying to make him stop doing it. He says, "bang, bang, bang" if he gets mad at you while pointing his finger

Snow in Vegas

We had two days of snow this month, the first was pretty mild, enough for the kids to go out

and eat some snow, Jay and I were at work, but Auntie Tip and Auntie Amanda were home to take Jayme out to play

The second day of snow was craziness, we got about 4 inches

people were freaking out, we all left work early to make sure we'd get home safe because there were a bunch of accidents, roads closing

we rushed home to change so we could play in the snow before it went away, Jay was being creative and used their swimming tubes for sledding down the driveway into the street

then they just played in the back yard
made a snowman, a Hawaiian rabbit looking one :)

The morning after was still so pretty, I wish it could have stayed a few days longer! One more week, we would have had a white Christmas