Christmas Morning

Of course we were all excited to see if Santa came.....but the kids were a bit over excited, waking up at 5 AM!!! I blamed John, saying it must have been some sort of payback for waking early when he was little.

Sadie got exactly what she wanted for Christmas. Her very own umbrella!

Andy got a creature power suit that he has barely taken off. He loves playing all kinds of creatures!

These sisters are the cutest friends. They had a lot of fun opening their stockings together.

Julie got an American Girl Doll that she named Roserella. She looks just like Julie.

After playing with their new toys for a bit, Memere, Grammy and Pop Pop came over with MORE presents! Everyone was a little excited.

Sadie had a few wardrobe changes throughout the day. I tried to catch them all, but not sure if I was successful.

Andy in his creature power suit and "night vision goggles" that are basically goggles with little lights on them. He thinks they are awesome and was sneaking around the house in the dark with them on.

Trying out Andy's rocket from Uncle Justin and Aunt Audrey.

He also got this super awesome game from Auntie Bess that he happens to be amazing at.

We had the family over for lunch. It was a lot of fun and very relaxed. The kids were running all over, playing with their new gifts. We spent some time outside playing on Julie's new scooter and Andy's new skate board.

The girls set up Sadie's new tent from Aunt Arlene and camped out in the living room before going to visit Grandma Hazel. All in all a great Christmas.

Grammy's Birthday!

Christmas eve is always full of excitement, but it is especially exciting for us because it is Grammy's birthday too!!! Happy birthday Grammy! Good thing you had all that help blowing out your candles.

When we got home from the birthday, John read the kids "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and then the kiddos went to bed in hopes of Santa visiting.

Holiday Fun with the Hammers!

There are a few holiday activities we love to do with the Hammers.  One of them is the Margarita Tree Lighting. It's so much fun to get all bundled up, going to sing in the park, then pile into trailers and go all over town singing to the older folks.

Of course there is lots of coffee and hot cocoa involved.

This year we even decorated ourselves with battery operated lights. It made finding all the kids (and John and Chris) much easier.

This will likely be the last year that Andy will be getting on Chris's shoulders. But he loves it while it lasts!

Another holiday favorite is cookie baking. Every year (for at least 8 years, so not as long as 'Cut n Gut' but still a long time) Kay and I like to get together and bake up a storm.  We didn't take any pictures but Chris got some great ones of the kids decorating the sugar cookies.

This is how the kids get to help and they give Kay and I a little more room in the kitchen by getting out of the way!

Sadie had a hard time keeping the frosting on the cookies.

Even Uncle Monster decorated a few. Bunny ears!!

After the cookies were done, cleaned up and way too many eaten, we headed over to Cambria to walk through their holiday lights.  The girls loved this Alice in Wonderland tea party.

Andy loved getting extra snuggles with his little sis.

Such pretty girls!

And finally, a picture of all 4 of us! These are few and far between but I love this one that Julie took of us!

We love the Hammers and all the holiday fun!  Nothing better than great friends, especially when Christmas lights and cookies are involved!

Class Parties

This year I got to help out with Julie's Holiday Class Party. I also got to pop into Andy's class too. It was fun to see them in their element enjoying their classes.

First stop was to see Santa. I missed Andy's class visiting him, but I got to see Julie. She looks all together too grown up in this picture!

  Andy was way more interested in eating the cookie he decorated than talking to me or smiling for a picture. But he's adorable either way.

I love that Mrs Teel wanted to take a picture of me and my girl. I can't believe I have a second grader. Shes so awesome.

All the kids had a blast building their graham cracker houses.  They took their time and did a great job.

I don't help out in the kids classes too often, but when I do, I am reminded of what a great environment my kids get to be in every day. Their teachers are amazing and I am truly grateful for them.

Some Random Holiday Shots

The night we got our Christmas tree this year, Sadie was feeling very under the weather. But she held it together long enough to decorate the tree and smile with her brother and sister.

Love these silly girls and how much they love their daddy. He loves having them climb all over him, even if his face says otherwise. 

The girls were excited to wear their aprons, even though I am pretty sure we weren't actually doing any baking when I took this picture. They still looked super adorable.

Or course we had to go see Santa!! Julie asked for an American Girl Doll. Andy asked for Wild Kratz gear. Sadie wanted nothing to do with Santa this year, again. But she stood in the doorway and yelled at him, "I want an umbrella and I am not going to sit on your lap!!"  But she did stand next to him long enough for a picture.

Andy's Award

We are so proud of Andy for getting his very first award. He was excited to see us but he immediately thought we were there for Julie to get an award since they go to the same assembly. I think he was in shock when they called his name.

His award was for his "Focus and Determination"  Such a great kid, none of us were surprised, but it was so great to see him up on stage. We are so proud of him!

Turkeys!

Before we left for our vacation, we all went to Sadie's Thanksgiving Feast at school. She was so excited her siblings were able to come to her school!

She loves having her big brother and sister around.

She did great singing her songs and showing off her turkey hat.

And it was a beautiful day so we got to eat outside.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Hunter Turkeys!

Thanksgiving Vacation

By some small miracle, John and I both got Thanksgiving week off. It was not a payroll week and John was able to swap a vacation. All 3 kids were off of school. We felt like we couldn't pass up the opportunity for a couple days away, just the 5 of us. It felt amazing to hit the road and just have a blast with our little family.

Our first stop was Midevil Times. Andy loved the suits of armor. But he majorly loved the falcon that swooped over our heads during the show. He was also a fan of the sword fighting, causing sparks and men to flip all over the arena.

Sadie loved cheering for the yellow night and booing all the other nights. She was so into it. Never missed a chance to yell and cheer for her night.

Julie was in awe of the amazing horses and all their tricks. They were beautiful and rode so well. She was overjoyed when our night threw her a flower.

A few of the actors came out after and the big kids wanted a picture with the Master of Ceremonies. He obliged. Sadie would go nowhere near him. Even though she was the most vocal in the show.

The next morning we got up and headed down to San Diego for LegoLand. Right when we walked in, we found Lego Santa! He was awesome! And as you can tell, it was a beautiful day!

 Sadie was so excited to get to drive her own car! They had them split into ages so she didn't even get run over!

 Hi Mom!!

 Andy and Julie had a blast on their track too. In bigger cars. When they were finished, the got little drivers licenses. Thank goodness they were pretend!

 Focused driver!

 This was Daddy's favorite Lego lady.

 All the Lego Christmas decorations were so festive and ornate. They made the whole place beautiful. And they had some special sledding and tubing "rides" just for the season. So fun!

 We enjoyed our lunch listening to this great quartet singing Christmas carols.

 I don't ride too many rides because they make me sick, but I did enjoy this plane tide with Sadie!

 These jousting horses were fun after seeing "real" jousting at MidEvil times the night before.

 Sadie thought they were great. But was to focused to look at me for a picture.

 We sent this picture to Arlene, since she loves Elvis!

 Sadie wouldn't go near this huge Darth Vader, but the bigs weren't scared!

 Sadie and Daddy with Buddy.

 We found this statue and we all were reminded of Pop Pop. Just needed a pipe and he would be all set!

 This was as we were leaving the park. We got there right before the park opened and they were closing the gates behind us. It was a great day and we are excited to go again!

The next morning Sadie was a little grumpy. And this picture was just too funny not to include.  But she did like getting to sleep on the top bunk of the hotel bunk bed!

 Luckily she snapped out of it by the time we got to Knott's.

 Sadie and Daddy on a glider plane ride. All 4 of them went on this at least 5 times.

 And on the Mexican Hat Dance ride. The big kids went on crazy big kid rides while John and Sadie went on these, so I couldn't get pictures of them.

This was one of the favorite rides of the day. It was a silly little ride, but all the kids loved it.

 The big kids basically pushed Sadie all the way because they pumped way faster. But that was half the fun.

We all had a blast at Knott's. Our favorite was Snoopy on Ice. But we also enjoyed the log ride and our delicious lunch at Johnny Rocket's! They were closing the gates behind us at this park as well. Such a fun trip and it wasn't a surprise that all the kids were asleep within minutes of getting in the car. We know we will visit each park again, but for now, great memories were made.