New Year's 2012

I tell Jeff all the time that we are such old farts for how young we are because we never do anything. Ok, I know we have kids, but half the time we would rather be home with them. Most of the time this is true, but we have NEVER gone out for New Year's EVER! We have always stayed home or been in bed before the ball drops!

This year we actually went out, thank you Nolan and Rachel for getting married so we could celebrate with you and actually ring in the New Year with some fun!

I didn't take my camera with me, but I took some pictures with my phone so I'm sorry if their not the greatest.

Cheers to a New Year of health, safe travels, friends and new friends, safety for Jeff in his new plane and squadron, my kids, may they always be happy, have fun and love one another. Even though we may not be close, but I love everyone of you and thank you for your friendship.

Jeff and I taking a break from dancing to snap a shot of us being silly!

We had a great time and he looked so cute in his tux! He was a groomsman in Nolan's wedding, so when he wasn't busy I snatched him up for some dancing!
Jessica and I having so much fun! Her husband was in the wedding so we stuck together, drinking and dancing! We had a great time. I think the whole age thing is catching up to me. I don't drink much anyway, but I did have a few and I never felt anything. The next day was another story! I took two naps and felt horrible! Damn 30's! lol

I hope you all had an amazing fun New Year's!

I know we did and I enjoyed myself so much! It was great to have some fun with friends and especially Jeffrey!

Playdate with the Seiler's

On Monday after Christmas we got to spend a couple hours playing with our best friends. We were all healthy and stayed away from germs over the holidays, so we took the opportunity to visit before we leave for our long venture south.

As most of you know one of my best friends sons has Leukemia and hasn't been able to leave the house or play with others do his low immunity. So being it was a nice day we played outside and enjoyed the vitamin D.

Carson is driving Tanner around while Jt chased them in Lightning McQueen car.

I love this picture! T trying to give daddy kisses.

All of our boys after enjoying an outside picnic. It's so great to see them all playing and bringing joy to each other. Jt and Carson were always together before we moved and he got sick. So when they get to see one another they are truly so happy.
Nicole and I!
I can't tell you how proud I am of her. She has been amazing through this tough time and has stayed so strong. I know there have been time where she isn't and I always try to find the right words of encouragement for her, but no one will know exactly how she is feeling. Chad and Nicole have been so blessed through all of this and I am so glad that we get to be there for them and experience this. It has opened our eyes to a whole new world.

We were all so happy to get to spend time with our friends! Can't wait to be back home so we can do this more often!

Until our next play date with the Seilers..........

Christmas 2011 at my dads

Merry Christmas from the Blaufuss boys!

We totally didn't get a family picture this year, which makes me kinda sad. Not only do I try the tree picture, I always want a family picture. Oh wellllllll!

This can be my family picture or even better, use my new photo shop and cut each of us out and make a family picture all on my own! Yeah, I'll have to try that!

Here are the boys right after they woke up. Jt couldn't stand still and was so excited!

Jeffrey's new jacket from me!
My gift from Jeffrey! Something I've been wanting for a long while!

Santa's gift to Jt...

Tanner ripping through his gift! This is his second Christmas, but the first where he actually cares about whats going on.

This was Tanner's favorite gift from grandma Kathy! He finally put the thing down and gave it a rest. We had to put a new set of batteries in it already, so should tell you how much he liked it!

Tanner's gift that we had to leave behind for now.

Our mornings at home on Christmas are short. We open gifts and let the kids play for a couple hours while we get ready to head up to my moms. We had a great morning opening gift, eating pancakes and putting toys together. It's so fun seeing the kids get so excited over their gifts and be so happy over a gift Santa brought them. Especially Jt, makes me want to be a kid again!

Christmas 2011 at my Moms (Super Long)

Every year we have 2 Christmas's, either at our house if we are living in Fresno and at my moms in the afternoon. This year we were staying at my dads (which I will post about later) and spent the morning there opening gifts and playing with everything. Then we headed up to my moms for some family fun.

There is usually 20+ people there and we always have such a great time playing games, cooking, catching up with those we don't see often. I think the kids have more fun then the adults!

This year for Christmas we tried to keep the gift giving simple with our kids. We did 3 gifts for each of our kiddos: 1 from Santa, 1 they wanted and 1 they needed. We did an extra for Jt, which it was from T, but we found this really cool Dinosaur book and couldn't resist! We made my dad stick to the rules and you'll see why we did this later in the post! My mom and everyone else goes crazy! It's just ridiculous how many gifts these kids get! We appreciate them all very much and feel so blessed to have such a great family spoil them!

This is a rear picture of the 2 of them together in a photo! My mom and her sister, my aunt Charlene.

Jt who was patiently waiting to open his gifts, yeah right!

He was having such a hard time waiting and so were a couple of the kids, so we decided to let them open theirs early instead of waiting! Our family has always waited to open gift until after dinner, which I think is the dumbest thing ever. When your 4, you can't wait that long!
This guy who we never get to see is my cousin Richard and his 4 year old son Anthony. Jt and Anthony are just a couple months apart and this was actually the first time they met. They got along so well and Jt can't wait to see him again.
This is why we did 3 gifts for the kids! These gift were separated between 4 kids. so do the math, that's like 7+ gifts for each child. That is just to many for 1 kid! I will post their favorites in my next post!

The dog whisperer

My brother Jeff's girlfriend Kristle who we just adore! Love her!

My little niece Brooklyn! This was her first Christmas this year and boy was she spoiled. She had a great time ripping into her presents and playing with all of the new toys! Tanner and Brooklyn just love each other. They were sharing toys, giving kisses and he was showing her how the airplane flies! So cute!

My mom and step dad Larry getting ready to open their gifts!

While all of the big kids opened their gifts the little ones were asleep, so we opened gifts with Tanner after he woke up and the big kids were all outside playing. This made for a more relaxing and enjoyable experience for T man. I liked it because I got to watch the boys individually and actually enjoy it.

My sweet boy

Everyone, well most of everyone outside playing rings and smoking the ribs.

My mom got Jt this Imaginex T-Rex he had been wanting for the longest time and what did he do with it? Well, he found Samantha's Barbie and well, you can see! What a boy!

My brother Scott and Brooklyn. This is such a great picture of them! She is just toooo sweet!

T man showing Brooklyn how the planes fly! He's even making the noise for her! I wonder who he gets that from?

Anthony was getting the dance party started on the Kinect. For a 4 year old, he followed along really well. What a kick it was to watch him dance too. I did get a video of it, but I'm not sure how to upload it yet.

As the night was coming to an end, we made our rounds with kisses goodbye! Even the babies wanted in on it!

We hope you all had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! I know we did, it's always so nice being home with our family for the holiday. That's what I enjoy the most these days.

Christmas Tree(s)

I saw this post on Pinterest with a Christmas tree blurred and it looked so pretty. So I was trying to duplicate it and practicing my focus on Jts head to get the blurry background. I followed all of the instructions, but I must be a camera idiot cause I couldn't get it for the life of me! Maybe next year. So here are my results: Not even close......

At one point I said screw it and just played around with the manual setting and did this one all by myself! No to bad, if I say so.
This one isn't bad either!
Now, this just looks blurry!

And then.....there's my dads fake half lit tree! LMAO

Don't ask why I thought I should share this with you, but every year I am determined to get a great TREE picture! Going to be one of must.

Home for the holidays (Random)

The boys and I were lucky enough to be home for someones birthday this year! My brother Jeff celebrated his 39th birthday! Ignore the picture below, he IS NOT 40! lol

We had a great day started with brunch and then followed buy dinner up at my moms! The guys went shooting at my moms while us girls sat inside talking and catching up. I think they even went fishing! Jackson was so happy to get to spend some time with his cousins and uncles.

My brother opening his gifts!

Tanner enjoying his dinner and watching everyone chit chat!
This one was funny! We thought we would give him an extra year!
You don't look a day over 34 Jeff!

Little stink! Move away from the plant!

My brother Scott with his granddaughter Brooklyn!

He adores her beyond the moon!

So glad we got to spend the day with you Jeffrey Douglas. We love you and hope you had a great day.