Christmas Eve

Christms Eve was at our house this year. We had my brother and his family and my Mom and Terry over. We had dinner, exchanged gifts and made smores out by the fire pit for dessert. Before bed John went over the story of Jesus's birth and why we celbrate Christmas and then we let the girls open their large gifts (mainly to get the big boxes out of the way) but they were happy and it helped ease their curiosity over what could be in a box so big. There were bean bag chairs in the boxes.

Mikayla is trying to guess what is in the box.

My niece Hailee made this jewlry box for Ashlee and Mikayla.

Ashlee decided she needed to take pictures of the place settings before everyone arrived.

Pismo Beach

Mrs. Terrones(Ashlee's 4th grade teacher) Ashlee, Sarah and Alyssa

Alyssa, Austin, Taylor, Ashlee S. Brooke, Mikayla, Allison, Heather, Riley Ashlee, Sarah

La Parisima Mission in Lompoc

Pismo Beach. A brief 15 min on the beach was all they would allow due to the weather.

Christmas Dinner and gift exchange.

Two months ago we decided that we would go camping in Pismo during Winter Break. We invited our friends the Starkweather's and the Stiles to come along with us. My mom even planned a trip to Pismo during the time we were going to be there as well. In the meantime, Ashlee's teacher assigned them their 4th grade mission project which was to be completed during winter break and turned in when school resumes in January. We figured since we were going to be down south that we would request that the girls (Ashlee, Sarah and Alyssa) receive missions that where located down south so that we could complete their assignment. Their teacher Mrs. Terrones, was more than willing to work with us. She assigned Ashlee and Sarah to the San Luis Obispo Mission and Alyssa to the La Parismia Mission in Lompoc.

As always, before it's time to leave for a trip we start checking the weather forecast. A week before we left it was 78 in Pismo. We thought we were finally going to get out of the cold fog and see some sunshine. Each day leading up to our departure the forecast showed more and more rain. We wanted to cancel our trip, but the girls had to do their mission projects. So we decided to go. After all it couldn't be that bad right???

Before we even left Turlock the Stiles had a flat tire on their trailer. They got their tire fixed, made it to Gustine and their car started smoking. Once again they were able to fix it and continue traveling. Not much further down the road, the Starkweather's blew a tire on their trailer. All this while it is raining. This was starting to turn into a bad trip. I think we all wanted to turn around and go home, but we knew that these mission projects needed to be done so we kept on chuggin along.

Shortly after we arrived in Pismo it started to rain, and rain, and rain, and rain. Did I mention that it rained? From Friday night to Sunday afternoon it rained a total of 10inches. Sunday alone was 3.71 inches. It was insane. I never seen so much rain in my life. We had to go buy rubber boots and that is what we wore the whole time. Luckily the campground had a laundry mat so we could dry and wash our wet clothes.

Saturday we went to the La Parismia Mission in Lompoc. Ashlee's teacher is from Lompoc and was down there visiting her family for the holidays so she met us at the mission. Luckily she was there, so she knows just how wet it was and all that we went through to get this project done.

Sunday we went to San Luis Obispo to do Ashlee and Sarah's mission. The forecast for Sunday was "drenching rain". The plan was to do a virtual video of the mission, but it was raining so much we just took pictures and decided to put them on a poster board. On our way to the mission there was an orchard covered in water. The water was to the tops of the trees and almost to the edge of the freeway. We started to think that maybe we should get out while we still could and head for home. We returned back to our campground from the mission to discover that the campground next to ours had been evacuated, it flooded. The only thing keeping our campground from flooding was a wall about 3 feet high and the water was already half way up the wall. By now we really started to think that we should pack up fast and get home. But we ended up staying one more night. The beach was basically off limits due to the rain and high tide. They let you park your car and go on the beach for 15 minutes but that was it. So we didn't get to see much of the beach. Sunday night we used the clubhouse at our campground and had a Christmas Dinner with a gift exchange for the kids. If you have read this far, you can probably tell we had a very wet, eventful weekend. Monday we did make it home safely. Now it's time to develop all those pictures and complete that mission project! (Homework even during the holiday's what a JOY)! NOT!!!

School Christmas Program

Tonight the girls had their Christmas Program at school. It was very nice, short and sweet. Here are some pictures. Ashlee wasn't having a very photogentic night, so there are more pictures of Mikayla than her.

Our Weekend

Our Weekend-

Field trip to San Juan Bautista

Turlock Christmas Parade

Alyssa and Allison Sleep Over

Set up for Santa Breakfast

Santa Breakfast

Hailee's Birthday

Ward Christmas Party

Rest

Pictures from Ward Christmas Party

Field Trip to San Juan Bautista

Friday I went on a field trip to the San Juan Bautista Mission with Ashlee's class. They were given a scavenger hunt (a fancy name for homework on a field trip) to be completed while they were there. There were about 50 questions and it took the whole time to get it done. We had like 1 min left to spare.

Ashlee and Alyssa inside the Chapel of the mission.

Alyssa, Ashlee and Camryn

Alyssa, Ashlee, Camryn and Sarah

Class pictures before getting ready to get on the bus and head back to school.

Afterschool Friday, Ashlee's friend Alyssa and Mikayla's friend Allison came home with us. Friday night we went to the Christmas Parade in Turlock. It's a pretty large parade. Thousands of people line the streets of Downtown Turlock. We got there and hour and 15 minutes before it started just to get a spot. The entire parade lasted and hour and half. They had arts and crafts for the kids to do before the parade started. The girls are making place mats and ornaments.

Turlock Christmas Parade

Laying down getting ready for the parade to start.

After the parade we headed back to the school to set-up and decorate for the Santa Breakfast Saturday morning. We were home and in bed around 11:30. Saturday morning we were up at 5 am and back at the school for the Santa Breakfast. John has been re-named the EB for the egg beater. We went through 3 cases of eggs plus some more. John beated and cooked eggs for 3 hours. I mixed lots of pancake batter and washed lots of dishes. We had a great turn out and the event was a success. Saturday afternoon we went and saw the movie Tangled for my niece Hailee's birthday. It was a very cute movie. Saturday night we had our ward Christmas party. We are still on the activities committee, so we had to set-up, prepare, clean-up etc for it.

Sunday we spent the day at home. We never got out of our pajamas. We were beat. We needed to rest up for the week ahead.

Post Thanksgiving/Christmas Crafts

Friday afternoon the girls and I went to my mom's house. My mom had some craft projects for the kids to work on. The kid's made some glass ball ornaments, beaded icicle ornaments and wreath ornaments.

Each year my mom comes up with a craft for the kids to make and give to their classmates. This year the kids made Magic Sleep for their classmates. We made an assembly line on the living room floor and everyone had a job to do. Ashlee did the bags. Landon put in the marshmallows. Mikayla put in the candy cane. Dylan put in the chocolate bell. Hailee put in the little poem and my mom and I tied the bags.

While dinner was being made the kids went outside and played some soccer. Once dinner was made and Grandpa Billy and Kay arrived we ate. We had Mexican food with all the fixins.

Silly Faces