It's Still Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Just wanted to post a quick blog to wish everyone a Merry CHRISTmas. We drove home last night from Southern California where we spent the week and Christmas day. We left at 10 p.m. last night and got home at 5 this morning! It was a long night ( I love coffee) but so nice as the boys slept the whole way and we didn't hit any traffic. We got home slept for 2 hours, had family Christmas and spent the rest of the morning putting everything away and getting organized and ready for our Dear Friends who are coming any moment to spend the next week with us! :) So it's still Christmas at our house as we have at least one more round of celebration today...and that's what it's really all about celebrating Jesus each and every day. Merry Christmas.

Just Relaxing

We're in Southern California and just enjoying some time not doing much of anything. So nice to slow down for a bit. We left at 2 a.m. Saturday morning and had a fabulous drive down here...I even got to see the Hollywood sign for the first time (it was light by then). Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend before Christmas and have had a moment to reflect on the baby on the manger who was and is the creator and sustainer of the universe ...amazing.

Still Recovering

I think I'm still recovering from the shock of seeing a GIRL on the ultrasound. My emotions are all over the place. One minute I'm really excited and awed at the thought of having a daughter and then the next minute I'm weepy over never dressing a little boy in blue. Oh, how I love hormones! :)  Matt, on the other hand, is a VERY excited daddy. Thanks everyone for your excitement for us. We are just resting in God's hands and know that He will keep us through all the ups and downs. 

   We are getting ready to head to Matt' s family (Southern California) for Christmas. We're excited to spend Christmas with them since we've only done it once in the 8 years that we've been married! :) Still have a few things to get done before we go clean the house, pack, organize the gifts, make sure last minute shopping is done, finish the baking, send out one more package, and label, stamp, stuff, and send out all the Christmas cards! I love leaving things to the last minute! :) 

 I hope your Christmas season is full of God's love and to bring you a little cheer here's the following conversation between Kaden and Caleb...

  Scene: gathered around the nativity calender to unwrap the figure of the night

 Kaden: "Caleb, why are you putting the camel in the sky?"

 Caleb: With a look of total confidence in his face, "Because it's a reindeer!"

   Hmmmm....maybe we need to work on keeping our Christmas stories strait! Although, Caleb is just a bit confused all over since every time he sees Santa he calls him Noah! :)

NOT TO BE!!!

To Be or Not To Be

Well...tomorrow is the day. Matt and I are headed to the doctor to have our ultrasound. The last two babies we've chosen to be pleasantly surprised at birth as to which sex God blessed us with...but the third time around we've opted to find out early! One if it is a girl I get to dream in pink, and two if it's another little boy then I have time to mentally prepare for three boys! :) I'm 99% sure it's a boy based on the heart beat we heard last week and maternal instinct, but tomorrow we should now if we are to be a family of all boys or not to be...

My Knight in Shining ummmm Fabric Armor

Clearing the hall of Bad Guys


Strike a pose 

For his birthday Matt and I got Kaden a Knight costume! ( ok, honestly it's a halloween costume I got like 50% off. I just love a bargain!) Kaden makes a great hero. He has the heart of a knight always caring for the fair maiden, rescuing those in need, and learning to be a true gentleman. I'm so proud of the little man God is molding him into!

Christmas Cookies

Pirate Cookies..I mean a pirate making cookies
Where Caleb spent most of his time while we were making cookies...poor baby. 
The finished project!

We got out Christmas Sugar Cookies made today! And in the words of Caleb, "Mmmmmm! That's good in my mouth!" :) Caleb ran a fever most of the day, so he did help some but asked to go lay down on the couch (so sweet) so Kaden and I took over most of the cookie making. Kaden is getting to be a great help with the cookies and it's fun to spend the time together...even it the mess does drive mommy crazy! :) 

  Ok and now a message from the little boy sitting on my lap..

  rb tbhubv r77890ududdjdcjcjcjvjv  jududuud duuigigri rgerlge

New Look

Just wanted to say THANK YOU to Julie for helping me to get a new look on the blog! Seriously, this has been like a 3 day process...I'm that computer illiterate! :) Not much new or exciting to post. Caleb was running a fever this afternoon so the plan for tomorrow is to stay home with the boys and make Christmas sugar cookies! We're very excited! I'll try to get some good pictures of the mess...I mean cookies! 

Street of Bethlehem

The first scene
Kaden couldn't decide if he loved or was terrified of the Roman soldiers. 
Mary and Joseph making their entrance
Think Tinkerbell/Angel. The angel was pulled up behind the stable so that she looked like she was flying. Very exciting. 

  Friday night, Matt and I took the boys to walk through the Street of Bethlehem. This is something that my daddy used to take us to do each Christmas...only 10 years ago it wasn't nearly as big as it is today. A local church in Salinas puts on this amazing production every year that allows you to walk through what Bethlehem would have been like at the time Christ was born. They have Roman soldiers with real swords (Kaden was very impressed that they were real) riding horses and managing the crowd, donkeys (of course), goats, sheep, horses, bunnies (none of these were great for my allergies but the boys LOVED them.) and the church members are all dressed like they are from Biblical times, and they even had flying Angels! 

   Let me start off by saying, we had a very hard time finding parking even though we attempted to follow the posted parking signs. In our defense the sign that we followed had an arrow pointing right into a lot full of cars which we assumed meant we were supposed to park there. However, we quickly found out that we were not at the place where the buses were picking people up and driving them to Bethlehem. Faced with the choice of reparking the car or walking we opted for walking....bad idea. We started huffing it down this street (mind you it's cold, we're pushing Caleb but Kaden is walking, it's very dark, we have no idea where we are, and Salinas is NOT the safest place to wander. ) We head about 10 blocks or more from where we parked as we see buses turning on that street...the buses were turning there to go back to the parking what we didn't know was that after leaving Bethlehem the buses drove about 4 blocks north and then turned around to head to where they needed to be. We figured that out once we'd walked about another 10 blocks up from the other direction and ended up on a street that was close to where we needed to be not accessible...so we backed tracked and finally wound our way to Bethlehem (in reality we were close to where we parked and had we stopped and figured that out we would've saved a lot of time and grief! :) We tried to keep a positive attitude and explain to Kaden and to ourselves that this is what Mary and Joseph must have felt like...discouraged and tired! 

  Once we got there, I realized how big this thing had grown. You know at Six Flags when you're waiting for a ride and you have to wind in and out of all the turns to get to the actual ride....it was just like that! There were like 20 or more turns to go through before you could even get in! There were easily a thousand people waiting and they would let maybe 200 in at a time. The first scene was the wise men coming to visit the governor to find out where the new King was born. Then they let you pass into Bethlehem (the whole time the Roman soldiers are very rude and treat you like your there to pay taxes) and walk through the booths. They have booths that show how they made yarn, pottery, bread, tools, cloth, toys, incense etc. It's really neat but very overwhelming as it is so crowded. Next you pass through these gates and watch Mary and Joseph come into Bethlehem looking for a place to stay. Everyone is invited back to the stable and as you walk through the next opening there's a mountain scene where the shepherds are. The do a dancing/singing angle routine and then you finally see Baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph. The dramatic climax is when the angel flies into the air in celebration of his birth. The church does a good job talking about why Jesus was born and on the way out of the church they have 3 crosses set up as a reminder of why Jesus came. It was fun to go to as a family (once we got there) and a neat experience for the boys.

     My favorite quotes of the night...Kaden: "What is that SMELL" Mommy, "That's a donkey."

  Kaden upon hearing Mary ask, "Is there no one compassionate in this town that will help us tonight?"    "I WILL!!!!"

   Caleb while watching Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus, "Yeah for Babies, Yeah for Jesus, Yeah for Babies!" 

The Rest of His Birthday

The Birthday King!  Kaden wore his Chuck E. Cheese birthday medal, his Birthday Boy pin, and his red crown from his teacher (yes, I know it looks pink) all day long! He is so proud to be 5!
Caleb got a gift from his Granny and  from Grandma in Texas...he was so excited to have something to open!
Showing off his new leapster game from Papa and Grandma...we've finally let him enter the world of electronics.
You have to look at this picture and the next one together...this is the wow, I got clothes for my birthday...
This is YES!!!! I got Kung Fu Panda! I love the difference in joy!

Here are a few more pictures from Kaden's 5th birthday. I failed (surprise, surprise) to bring the camera to school or cubbies to get pictures of those mini parties but just imagine 2-5 year olds eating chocolate cupcakes and chocolate cookies (chocolate EVERYWHERE) and singing Happy Birthday in their very sweet, very off tune voices and you get the picture! :) Kaden is loving being 5 and even told me today he could clear his own plate and throw things away because he's 5 and can do things now! Sweet! It's time to bring on the chore list! :)

First Impressions

Matt and I are really loving Calvary Chapel Monterey Bay where we have been attending church. The pastor does a great job teaching verse by verse through the Bible, and the worship is pure and sweet. On top of that, they have a great children's program which is huge once you start having kids. All that being said, Matt and I decided it was time to get a bit more involved so that the church would really start to feel like home. I filled out all the paperwork to become a Sunday School teacher and had a meeting with the Children's Coordinator today to go over their system and curriculum etc. 

  Well, we get to the church slightly late (totally normal for me) but the Coordinator isn't there yet. No problem we'll just wait downstairs. So we walk down the stairs and there's a rope across the bottom with a handwritten sign which says. "Do not enter. Alarm activated" I think hmmm...that's probably just there to scare people off. So with my two children in tow and Kaden asking mommy why we're breaking the rules and going through the do not enter sign to which my explanation was, "It's OK hunny we need to be down here" we duck under the rope. Immediately an alarm goes off and gets louder and louder and louder until the boys are screaming and we're running for the door. We wait outside the door until we see the secretary come sprinting down the stairs to turn off the alarm. I apologize for not obeying the posted sign...apologize to Kaden and reinforce that yes, we should always obey do not enter signs and we go on to meet the coordinator. 

  As I'm sitting in the meeting with the coordinator the secretary again comes sprinting down the hall to ask me if the alarm on my van is going off. Yes, it was going off because silly Mommy left her keys in reach of her two year old who has an obsession with pushing the RED button on the key pad. Ahhhhh...so embarrassing. Not a great way to impress the church with my ability to read, follow instructions, or watch my own children! I guess that's what God's grace is for!

Major Van Hook

Major Matt Van Hook at attention...isn't he cute!
Taking the Oath
Matt's Dad and I got to pin on his new rank
The boys got to put the new rank on his sholders
The new Major Family
Kris and Shawn Van Hook, Matt, me and the boys

Monday afternoon Matt was promoted to the rank of Major in the Air Force! We are so proud of him and all that God is doing through him. We are excited to see where the Lord will lead us next. 

Kaden is 5!!!

Kaden and his Kung Fu Panda birthday cake! It was supposed to be red on top and yellow on the sides but I gave up and just splattered it! :)
All Kaden has wanted this year is a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese
Caleb was a bit overwhelmed by Chuck E. Cheese, he just had a blank expression on his face most of the time and watched the mechanical dancing/singing mouse!
Kaden on the other hand enjoyed every moment! He LOVED it and that made 3 hours of screaming children and mass chaos worth it!
We couldn't get Caleb close to the mouse so here's most of the party and Papa Van and Grandma Shawn who get awards for enduring Chuck E. Cheese with us!
We tried in vain for a group photo and then just as we were getting ready to leave they all spontaneously formed a group!

  Sunday we had Kaden's 5th birthday party! He's actually five today and loving every minute of it. We celebrated Sunday and then today he took cupcakes to school (yes, I forgot the camera) and tonight we're taking cookies to AWANA. I think he feels well celebrated. He had a blast and it's so fun to watch his face glow and eyes light up. Hard to believe we've had this gift for 5 years! Thank you Lord.