Disney on Ice

I took Sienna to Disney on Ice for the first time, and we had a bunch of friends meet up and go with us.  It was a fun girls day.  We had a yummy lunch at Red Robin and then headed off to the show.  The girls LOVED it!  I'm so glad we made it happen.

Valentine's Day 2.14.13

We LOVE Valentine's Day at our house!  We have a tradition of serving fondue every year, it's definitely a highlight!  This year we celebrated all day.  We had Red Velvet Pancakes for breakfast and then had heart-shaped pizzas for dinner, with chocolate fondue for dessert.  Yum!  And Ryan surprised me with roses, that's new! :o)

Ravens vs 49ers Superbowl

This sign showed up mysteriously on my refrigerator....  Braden likes to be a rebel.  It was insulting to his Aunt Bobbi, I'm sorry to say, who is a former 49'ers cheerleader.  But it turns out, Braden was right after all...

Braden's Last Pinewood Derby - Jan. 26, 2013

I thought last year was Braden's last pinewood derby since we had it later in the year.  I was a little despondent when I found out this year it was in Jan. and he'd still be in cubs. :(  The boys love this event, I think it's stressful.  But it turned out fun.  We didn't win, we stayed about right in the middle, but Braden was happy and we got lots of cookies afterwards.

Conner's Mohawk - Jan. 6, 2013

Conner loves mohawks.  One Sunday he begged Ryan to make his hair "stick up."  So Ryan obliged.  His hair is too long for this, and did not look good for church!  I made him comb it out, but compromised by taking lots of pictures.  Conner was bummed out, but don't worry, for his birthday (April 3) we let him get his hair cut shorter so we can style a "Faux-hawk" whenever the mood arises.

Mail Key Debacle - Jan. 3, 2013

Sienna loves mail.  She's a pen pal with several people.  She loves to get the mail, she loves to put mail in the mailbox.  Somehow she lost the mail key one day, she had it in her hand with a stack of mail to be mailed, and then it was gone before she could open our mailbox.  It was concluded that she accidentally "mailed" the mail key.  After about a week of no mail, I called the post office who said it would be $50 to change the locks.  Sienna spent the next two days parked on this chair in front of the house waiting for the mailman (woman) to come so we could ask her to look for the key with the outgoing mail.  Sienna finally caught her on the 2nd day but she wouldn't help Sienna, told her we would have to come with ID, of course I was gone for precisely the 5 minutes I was needed.  So the next day I ran down there when we saw her, and sure enough, the mail key was there.  $50 fine averted.  There was  A LOT of mail after 10 days of not getting it! The fun part was we got a new pile of Christmas cards, so that was awesome.

Happy New Year!

We celebrated the New Year at home with the kids for 2013.  We had a dinner with soup and fancy drinks. Then we played games until it was time to bang pots and pans, which we do with New York City, so 9pm our time!  We played some of our new board games from Christmas but the big hit was the candy bar game.  I had two huge Hershey's bars in the middle of our circle.  We passed dice around and everyone would roll once and pass it on.  If you got 7 or 11, you had to hurry up and put on the "gear" which was a scarf, big gloves, ski goggles, and a beany hat.  Then with two butter knives, you tried to open a Hershey's bar and eat as much as you could before the next person rolled a 7 or 11.  This game was really hard for Conner who had more than one tantrum because his stuff kept getting taken away before he got any chocolate!

This is Conner mad because he just lost a turn, AGAIN!

2012 Catch - Up, in no particular order

 R.J.'s baseball team, the Padres, won it all!  25-0, it was an amazing season.

 R.J. earned 1st class in scouting.

 Sienna turned 9.

 Me & Sienna saw Wicked with friends.

 Braden & Sienna performed at their school Luau.

 Grandpa Jan took us to the California State Fair.

 R.J.'s school band performed the National Anthem at a River Cats baseball game.

 Annual Pinney Reunion at Carpinteria Beach.

 Free slurpies on 7-11.

 Farmer's Market

 Kids first time at the circus, they loved it!

 We learned how to make lemonade, yum!

 Braden had his last Twilight Camp.

 The 3 youngers took swimming lessons.

 We broke 100,000 miles on the mini-van.

 Spent almost 2 weeks in Utah at Aunt Jana's house, Uncle Robert's house, and Grandma Shirley's house.

 Uncle Larry helped Braden pass off some Webelos requirements.

 First day of school.  RJ.-7th; Sienna-4th; Braden-5th

 Conner's first day of preschool

 Family Pictures

 Braden played soccer

 Braden earned his Arrow of Light - highest award in Cub Scouts.

 R.J. played soccer

 Halloween

 1st Ever Dessert Night - We must do this again!

 R.J. turned 13.

 Thanksgiving in Lancaster.

 Sienna running her school's annual turkey trot.

 Lots & lots of dentist appointments!

 Conner's very first trip to the dentist.

 Breakfast with Santa.

 Conner didn't want to leave Santa, he held up the line for awhile. :o)

 R.J. had a scary bike accident.

 More Utah pictures, celebrated Grandma Shirley's 74th!