Visiting the graves at Christmas

The day before Christmas Eve we wanted to go and visit the Grandparent's graves. They are all buried local so we wanted to try and get to all of them. Our first stop was to Cypress Forest Lawn, to see Grandpa Jack. Jack Schlarb left us 22 years ago this December. Mr. B remembers him so fondly from his own childhood and it it is him whom we named our own son after. JT likes to read about Grandpa Jack, how he pitched for USC and stormed the waterfront. We got the metal all shiny and left a small Christmas Tree.

We then headed up to Rose Hills to visit Herb Booth, Mr. B's paternal Grandfather. Heabug calls him GranmpaGrampa. It was a little surreal listening to her "talk" to GrampaGrampa as we cleared and cleaned the headstone. The day was cold. We also were able to visit the Jink's who are Gramma GG's parents. Herbs parents are also in the same cemetery.

Lastly we made it to visit my grandparents. HeaBug is named for my tutu Maraea. She passed away in 2001, when Mr. B and I were still dating. I'm so glad he got a chance to meet her and see what a wonderful woman she was. She was full of life and music and laughter. She had the kindest soul and thought of everyone before herself. She loved her family intensely and we all felt it.

This is the Little White Church. It has recently been restored and relocated to the Green Hills Memorial park. Isn't it just beautiful? It's important for us to know who we are and where we come from. It's important to teach our children about the people that came before us. The people who paved the way for us to become who we are and create these lives for ourselves. I remember going with my Grandma to visit my grandpa's grave. We would sit and clean it and play music. Now we take my kids up to visit both of them, sometimes its just us, sometimes more of our family goes. I guess it seems like kind of a weird way to spend a Sunday afternoon but we genuinely had a good time. We wrapped up the evening hitting up a tiny spot called Harry's cafe. They serve the best Saimin, the OG stuff that I remember from my own childhood. Delicious!

Trading in the Auto... Our new VW

 We sold our truck, paid off our mini and bought a new VW Touareg. Loving it.

Pre School tells the Story of Christmas.

 HeaBug's preschool told the story of Jesus' birth. They do their play in the Sanctuary and the kids are just the cutest. Our Heabug was a camel. On Sunday, they did it for the whole church, we attended that service and enjoyed watching her.

Rock Steady Christmas Dinner

We have the most amazing group of people that we get to work with at Rock Steady. Not everyone can say that they really love their job and not many people can work in an environment where your co-workers are like (and in our case just are) family. Everyone pulls their weight. Everyone works together. While some gigs may go on for 30 straight hours... you're guaranteed to crack up laughing at least 5 times a day. The people we are surrounded by believe in our dream. That's why it works. We're all just crazy enough.

Last year we did a harbor cruise, this year we thought we'd keep it a little closer to home. The Outback in Lakewood has been fantastically accommodating, they helped us specialize a menu and we had access to the whole heated patio which was great. Our kids came because they are just as much a part of Rock Steady as we are. So we had a little dinner party for our team and the people that support them. It was a fun and delicious evening and made us feel even more grateful that we are surrounded by such an awesome group.

We are thankful every day that we get to come to work and hang out with such a great bunch.

AGA Secret Santa Party

HeaBug is on the Hot Shots at AGA, the gymnastics gym that they both work out at. They hosted an International Pot Luck Dinner and Secret Santa Exchange for Christmas. They girls picked names and then they were responsible for picking out a gift for that girl and bringing it to the party. HeaBug and I attended the party as Mr. B and Jack ran errands. We brought Kalua Pork and rice as our cultural dish to share. There was SO MUCH food! So much delicious food. I took tiny bits of many things and my plate was overflowing and I STILL didn't get to everything.

Once we arrived, she headed out to the floor to play with the other girls and have a good time. They actually had their own little party out there. HeaBug was paired with an older gymnast that was to help her get her plate, eat her food and pretty much take care of her. Yeah, I spent a lot of time on my iphone that night. lol.

We had a great time and her secret santa got her an Our Generation/American Girl doll named Audrey. She's still loving it to pieces. It was a fun night.

The Ornament Party

It was our first ornament party in the new house. It's always a little strange when you do something you've been doing forever in a new place. All the elements were in place though and I think it turned out pretty great. Good company, good food, a good time. Kids played in the yard and got muddy and dirty and happy. We had the darn Hunter Duck ornament show back up and make his third ornament party appearance, at least one child cry (Sorry Nikki!!), lots of sipping chocolate, a house that smelled of apples and cinnamon and some serious Christmas Spirit going on.
The one thing I missed terribly was the singing. Normally we sing carols and this year for some reason, we didn't. I'm bringin' it back in 2013 with Christmas Karaoke. Be ready for that one!

 

You're killin' me Smalls... JT's 8th birthday at the Sandlot

JT's favorite movie is The Sandlot. For his birthday, we decided to have a Sandlot Party at our house. It's been raining lately. Very wet, very muddy in our giant yard. I was so nervous that I'd have a bunch of kids that I needed to entertain with last minute inside games. Fortunately, the sun was shining on us for the morning and though there was a chill in the air, our pals didn't seem to notice.

We had baseball tees with the kids names on the back. They got to enjoy classic glass bottled cokes.

I was so glad to have awesome helpers. This is the first year that we've done a "drop off" party. Parents don't have to stay and hang out. They can go and enjoy 3 kid free hours! Thankfully, my pal Cakestina and my Mother-in-law stayed and helped with games, food, blowing up balloons and kid wrangling.

We were so glad to see Mr. B's brother Chris and our nephew E. We live in the same city but as things go with busy people, hardly get to spend time together. We were excited to show him our new home and JT was over the moon at having his big cousin over. They had the best time playing around!

We played a game where each kiddo had a balloon and we raced to see who could pop their balloon first.

Then we played a fun game of Blind Man's Bluff. Something I remember playing all the time when war were little.

                                                                               

We played a fun game of steal the bacon. It was hard core and I talked a lot of trash to my opponent (Mr. B)

I failed terribly, ALL THREE TIMES! our fun rivalry was fun for the kids though.

This is my valiant effort

It came time to do the piñata. Each of the kids took turns going from youngest to oldest. Without the blindfold you got three swings. With the blindfold, you got five.

JT took it easy his first at bat so that everyone could get a turn. We told him to go ahead and "let'er buck" and he sure did.

 JT's actual birthday morning, he awoke to special message balloons all over the house and we had funfetti pancakes for breakfast. Even our Elf on the Shelf, Blueberry Angus got in on the celebrating.

 It's been a privilege to be his parents. It's been a pleasure to watch him grow. We are so proud of him every day and so blessed that he is our son. Love you buddy.