Nine and Jazz

Matt and I celebrated 9 years of marriage on December 29th...woohoo!!! Matt took a half day at work and we took the kids up to Six Flags for one last hurrah before our season passes expire.

Reagan is so into having her picture taken these days. Sometimes she makes these sexy faces and I have to remind her she is only 5 years old :)

Nolan rode the Frog Hopper and actually had a good time!We ended the night with Matt and I heading out to Chili's for dinner. It was reminiscent because I always associate Chili's with our early years. I remember being in college and a meal at Chili's was actually stretched into 3 meals...eating chips and salsa at the restaurant and then taking our meal home and eating for the next 2 meals! Now we have kids and eating out isn't a luxury we enjoy as much, but it is always a good feeling sitting in the dark red restaurant and munching on chips and salsa while watching the game on the bar tv.

Matt scored some free tickets from a good friend of ours to the Warriors/Jazz game here in Oracle Arena. We had amazing seats in one of the VIP section. The game was awesome. It was down to the final buzzer, with the Jazz pulling it off. Since I am almost positive we were the only Jazz fans in the entire arena, Matt's whoop of joy at that final buzzer was like a shot heard round the world. No worries, we hightailed it outta there VIP style through our secret exit and to our car, heading home in no time flat. It was a FUN night!!!

As a final ending to this post, I thought I would include the scariest pic I have ever seen of my kids. In their defense, I did ask them to make a scary face. I guess I just completely underestimated their ability to do so :) Reagan inherited my gift of making "crazy eyes" and I am not sure what happened to Nolan's tonsils, but it is documented for all to see. Enjoy!

Christmas

We had a really great Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve at a party with some friends, eating lots of food and playing games. By the time we got home, it was a little late for any big celebrations of our own, so we skipped the nut pudding and had them open one gift and then their jammies. We read the nativity to them and talked about the birth of our King. Then it was off to bed!

Reagan chose her gift from Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen....a camera! Yes--EXACTLY what she needed! :):)

Nolan chose his gift from Reagan, which was a wooden Thomas and Rosie train cars.Posing in their jammies.
Christmas morning started very early and was finished very early, too. Matt--I mean--Santa, got me a nice watch! My old one broke several months ago and I had just about had it asking people everywhere I went "if they had the time."
Nolan LOVED his Lightning MacQueen geotrax car from Grandma and Grandpa Ras. He also loved his Polar Express train. It is a really nice Lionel train, but the tracks are completely compatible with geotrax...score! We had to go buy lots of extra tubs after Christmas to store all the train stuff.
He played with this train for 2 days straight. Now he is down to about 2 hours a day :)
Rocking out on their guitars from Grandma and Grandpa Roundy.
Later on in the day, we switched Nolan's crib to a day bed....what a big boy! He even got some Cars bedding to use in it. It is actually for a twin size, but we use it on his toddler bed anyway. The transition has been pretty good, but he will wake up at night and just get up and come to our room. Or yell "MOM, MOM" from his own room.
For Christmas dinner, we had 2 families over and had a wonderful meal, topped with a honeybaked ham. It was awesome. We played Xbox and the kids played with their new toys. I am very very grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and the opportunity we have every day of the year, not just Christmas, to celebrate his life. I loved being able to talk with my kids this year about the real meaning of Christmas and have them, especially Reagan, understand. I hope this understanding deepens each year :)

Oakland Zoo

To pass the week before Christmas a little more quickly, we went to the Oakland Zoo. We have been here many times and in 2009, had a family pass, but this time we had scored free tickets through the library's Discover and Go program. The Dickman's had a family pass, so they joined us for the fun! It was a really great day! Reagan stole my camera all day long and was taking pictures of grass and Trey's eyeballs and everything else she could possibly think of. Good thing she unwrapped a camera a few days later from Grandma!

Funniest moment of the day: seating 4 kids in a double stroller. The BOB is surprisingly good at this! It got even funnier when I started up the hill, pushing them :)

Here is Reagan and Justin in front of a statue.
All the kids, minus Roslyn, in front of the red frog. I have so many pics of my kids through the years on this frog! If I had time and patience, I would go through and find and post them, but for now, just use your imagination :)
On the way out, we stopped at the rides and let them choose one ride to go on. They chose the cars! Here is Nolan and Seth driving.
Super fun day! Dumbest moment: me on the drive home, not taking my exit for the 13. I ended up heading into San Francisco......but luckily, there was an exit for the 24 in Oakland, so I took that and doubled back. I hit traffic and calculated in my head that it probably took me twice as long to get home. But my kids slept and that made me one happy mom. The end!