Traditions of Christmas...

Corey, Aubrey, Julia and Michael are all in the Christmas show, "Traditions of Christmas". It is the biggest Christmas show in San Diego. Corey, Aubrey and Julia were all in it last year, but Aubrey and Julia had very small parts. This year Corey is in the ensemble, but Aubrey and Julia have 3 different parts. They are really enjoying it!! It really makes my life crazy, but I guess it's worth it because they enjoy it so much. AND this year Michael is Baby Jesus. At the end of the show they do a live Nativity and Michael is Baby Jesus. The Nativity is really neat. They have sheeps, donkey's, even a real camel!!

I took a couple of pictures at rehearsal the other night of the Nativity. No one is in costunes, but "Mary" and "Joseph" are at the top of the picture holding "Baby Jesus"...Michael. It was neat to see him with them. I will take some pictures of all of the kids in costumes at a rehearsal in the next couple of days and I will post them.

Frank's Birthday and cute Michael...

Tonight was Frank's birthday (Pat's dad). We had Pats brother Mike and his family and Pats sister Helen and her family (including her daughter-in-law and their 2 kids) over to our house to celebrate Frank's birthday. I really love my father-in-law!! He is so giving and loving! He has helped Pat and I many times over the years. His whole life is his grandchildren and his children. He would do anything for them. He has been a wonderful blessing to our family and I feel very fortunate to have a father-in-law like him. Love you Frank and Happy Birthday!

There are a few cute pictures of Michael that I added to this post. The one where he is wearing the glasses is so darn cute!! That was taken at Franks birthday party tonight. He was wearing his Uncle Mike's glasses (He was named after Mike, Pat's brother). Babies are soooo darling when they are sleeping and they are even more darling when they fall asleep in a funny position!! So these are a couple pictures of cute ways that Micahel has fallen asleep.

Sream with Machine...

Every year around Halloween, the show choir that Patrick and Emily are in, do a performance called "Scream with Machine". The seniors in the group write a script that all of the kids in the group act out with speaking and music. Each of the kids picks a person or character that they want to be and they dress in costume like that character. The seniors in the group write the script with those characters in it. The kids stay "in character" the whole show. It is called "Scream with Machine" because every once in a while they turn off all of the lights and all of the kids in Machine "scream" and everyone in the audience is supposed to "scream" with them. It is a really fun Halloween tradition!! The kids are really creative and the script is always funny. This year Patrick was "Kip" from Napoleon Dynamite and Emily was the "Yellow Fanta Girl". They looked cute and they did a good job.

Meet Kate...

I am an aunt again!! My brother Steven and his wife Andrea had #3 last night at 1:50am! They already have cute 5 year old Ashley and energetic 3 year old Andrew. They are a sweet family and I am so happy for them! She is beautiful. They named her Kate Andrea Mathis. She weighed 7 lbs 3ozs. and she is 19 1/2 inches long. What an adorable addition to their family!! We love you guys...Congratulations!!

Julia's 6th Birthday

Julia's birthday was on November 1 and she turned 6 years old. We were actually in Las Vegas for a baseball tournament for Daniel on Julia's birthday. We had the champioship game on her birthday...it actually was fun for her! All of the baseball families kept telling her happy birthday and she even got a gift from one of the families!! We were also in Vegas on Halloween, so the kids didn't get to go trick or treating either. So, instead of having a birthday cake, Aubrey, Julia and I bought some candy and made candy bags for each of the boys on the team and their siblings. Julia got to pass them out to everyone and she enjoyed that a lot. She also wore a little tiara on her head all day, so that made her feel special too. We got home on Sunday night (Julia's b-day) so we celebrated Julia's birthday as a family on Monday. I made her a cake and she also opened presents.

Julia is a very special little girl! She is sooo smart and witty!! She has great sense of humor and an extremely VIVID imagination!! She can be sassy...sassy in a cute way and sassy in a 'get in big trouble' way!! Julia makes us laugh every day with the funny and sassy things she says!! Sometimes I dont know wether to get mad at her or laugh at her...Sometimes I actually have to turn my head so she can't see me laugh! Here are a few funny things that have happened...some will make you laugh and some will leave you with your jaw hanging open...just like mine was...HA! Btw...I am sorry if some of these are not funny to you at all...some I have to write so that Pat and I and the kids will remember them!

1. Me: Julia, pick up your backpack.
Julia: No.
Me: Julia, Don't tell me no!!!
Julia: I just did!

2. Julia as Bon Qui Qui: Girl, I will cutch you!
(some of you may not know what this is...go to you tube and type in Bon Qui Qui...we think it is SUPER funny! We all imitate Bon Qui Qui and the way Julia does it is sooo funny!)

3. Julia: Mom, was is a twitty tister????

4. Julia: Mom, I am going to be a Hillay Billeh (Hilly Billy) for Halloween. Look, I can walk like one. (Julia proceeds to put her arms out in front of her...sticks her butt WAAAAY foward and walks while swinging her her arms. I wish I could show you a video of this because it is sooooo hilarious!!)

More to come as I remember them...

We are the Champions my friend...

Daniel is to the right of the boy holding the plaque.

This is the Champioship picture for the travel team that Daniel plays on. The team is the San Diego Longhorns. They are a great team!!! This was taken at the Fall CLassic in Las Vegas over Halloween weekend. Their recored was 7-0!! Undefeated!! Daniel is a baseball fanatic. He lives, eats, sleeps, baseball!! We love his passion for the game and he is sooo fun to watch play!! He plays short stop and is a very talented player. He works really hard at being his best...there isn't a time of day that Daniel would say no to playing some baseball. He is always bugging Pat to take him off the T, do some ground work or to do BP with him!!

When Daniel was in elementary school he was playing baseball at our local Little League. One morning I went to give hime a hug good bye and his clothes felt unusually thick!! I asked him what he was wearing and he said, "Nothing!" So, I was persistant and made him show me. He had his ENTIRE little league unifrom on under his school clothes so that when he got home from school he could just take off his school clothes and he would be ready for his Little League game!! I came to find out that he had done this on more than a couple of occasions!!

When he was younger he could also be found sleeping with his new bat or glove!! I just love that about Daniel. I think his passion for the game may take him a long way in baseball...we will see!!!

EeeeeHeeehehehehe!!!

In October, Corey, Emily, Aubrey, Julia, Michael and I took a trip to Utah to see my family. I love to go to Utah and I have actually gone 4 times in the last year!! It is really important to me that my kids get that fun time with their cousins!! I wish we lived closer to eachother so they could all be together more often, but we go as often as we can. October is always a really fun time to go to Utah. We went to Gardner Village one day and they decorate the whole village with witches in October. It was sooo fun...witches, caramel apples and fun things to look at (and WANT to buy!!) all added up to be a lot of fun!!! The witches were great!! One of the witches asked the kids if they had eaten thier frog, finger and spider stew like "good little witches"...LOVE it!!!