Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! We hope you have a fun and safe New Year's Eve! We are looking forward to the many adventures and milestones ahead in 2009! Here is a look back at some of our favorite pictures of our family in 2008! What a blessed year we had!
Happy New Year!

Our Christmas

Christmas morning, DeAnna and I were up before the girls, believe it or not. Isabelle had snuck into our room around 630 and fell back asleep. At about 7:30 I couldn't wait any longer so I convinced DeAnna that we should wake up the girls. Isabelle got up immediately and asked if Santa came. While she was brushing her teeth and getting ready to go down stairs she asked if we had seen Santa last night and questioned us about Santa's visit. Finally after much excitement she started to run down the stairs and froze when she saw the Christmas tree. She immediately wanted to see if her stocking had been stuffed. She also wanted to see if Santa had eaten the cookies and drank the soda we left, she thought it was pretty cool that Santa had left the gingerbread man's foot behind.

After asking about a hundred times if she could open presents we finally let her dive right in. Isabelle was genuinely excited about each gift she opened and then she couldn't wait to open the next one. DeAnna got out a pen and some paper and started writing down some of the comments Isabelle made while opening gifts. She was keeping us entertained! We gave Calista a package to open and she spent the entire morning holding it and tearing at it and drooling on it; she eventually got it open. She was quite happy with the one package.

In the afternoon we were joined by my family. We ate lunch, played the Wii (not mine) and opened more gifts. In the evening we drove over to our friends the Adamsons for some dinner and enjoyed some more Wii fun.

We had a great Christmas and hope you did too!

-Freddie & The Girls

The Night Before Christmas...

Tonight we went to the Christmas Eve Service at church. It was fun, they had a story time for the kids and they gave each of them an orange and told them a story about kindness and sharing. After the kids came back to the seats they wanted to eat their oranges. The little boy in front of us pealed his orange and turned around and handed a slice to Isabelle, it melted my heart. Isabelle then pealed hers and handed a slice to him. It was so cute, that is exactly what the story was about!

When we got home we got the girls dressed in their Christmas PJ's and then decorated a gingerbread house. Isabelle really enjoyed it and she loved eating the candy.

Freddie read Isabelle the Nativity Christmas story and used our little people nativity scene as illustration. It was really cute!

Then we called Pops (My Dad) and he read the girls The Night Before Christmas. My Dad has read me that story every year before we went to bed on Christmas Eve my entire life. Yup even before we had kids I called him to read it to me. It's tradition and I love it!

Then we set out cookies for Santa and a Coke a Cola of course! Isabelle and I made the gingerbread cookies last night. We put the girls to sleep and they were both out like a light by the time Freddie and I walked down the stairs!!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas!

It's A Wonderful Life!!!

We had an awesome weekend! It all started Friday night, when we spent the night as a family under the glowing lights of our beautiful Christmas tree! It is a tradition we plan to do every year with our girls! Isabelle LOVED it!! She was so excited, as we got our beds ready and turned off the lights you could still see the glow on Isabelle's face. She enjoyed being in the living room with the tree, but I think she also enjoyed the fact that we were there with her. She talked to us for a while and then fell fast asleep! It was so much fun, and definitely a special evening we all wont soon forget!
Saturday morning we all slept in and then got up and got ready to head to the Bay Area to spend the day with family and friends. Freddie's Grandma Jenny hosted Pre-Christmas at her house with the Gallardo side of the family. Freddie's cousin Phina organized some awesome activities for the kids to do and they all had a blast! When we got there they were making Christmas tree ornaments and then the kids all got to make their very own gingerbread houses. It was a lot of fun to watch and help them build their creations! The kids also had fun singing Christmas carols and opening some presents. Both Freddie and I enjoyed watching the kids play with each other. As we were leaving some of Issy's cousins chased her down the street to give her a hug again. It melted my heart. I also really enjoyed spending time with Freddie's Grandma! It was such a fun time with family!

Isabelle and some of her cousins...

Saying goodbye...so cute!

On our way home we stopped in Livermore to visit our friends the Vavak's. They took us to see this house that is decorated with over a million lights on it. It was pretty amazing! A man named Deacon Dave decorates his house every year and all the donations go to charity. This year's theme was the North Pole and guess who was there... Santa! Isabelle was excited to see him again. I was impressed with Santa, as she approached him he had heard one of us say her name so he greeted her by name, she thought that was pretty cool! He also told her he liked her earrings, and if you know Isabelle you know that is a big deal to her right now!

Issy and Sammy

Ralph, Issy and Sandy

Our next stop was the Vavak's church, Trinity Baptist, where they were having a Drive Thru Living Nativity. There was quite a line of cars but it was worth the wait. I can't even begin to describe to you how awesome it was! You drive your car around the church's parking lot from scene to scene and you hear the story of Jesus birth through Mary's eyes on your car radio, while the people are acting it out in front of you. It was awesome! There were live animals and the costumes and scenes were pretty awesome too. They obviously put a lot of effort into this event! I am so glad we got to go and hope to make it back next year! Isabelle LOVED it too, she really got a kick out of the animals and I loved that they dressed the llamas up as camels!!

Here is a picture of part of one of the scenes...

Sunday morning we got to church early to help out in Isabelle's Sunday School class, and then we went to the 11:15 service. It was by far one of the best Christmas services we have ever been to. The music was phenomenal! They sang a song that just had me in tears it was a beautiful untraditional Christmas song that I had to download as soon as I got home. The orchestra and choir were also amazing this morning and the sermon was awesome too! Both Freddie and I agreed that it was a wonderful weekend with lots of fun events that really put us in the mood for Christmas. It was a good mixture of a little bit of commercial Christmas and also what the true meaning of Christmas is to us, Jesus!

Below is a youtube video of the song I feel in love with this morning. It is called I Celebrate The Day By Relient K

Christmas Lights

Tonight Freddie and I took Isabelle and her buddy Trevor out to look at Christmas lights. It is a family tradition, something I use to do as a kid with my parents and something Freddie and I use to do together even before we had Isabelle.

Our first stop, Starbucks, of course!! We stop at Starbucks every Sunday before church and Isabelle loves to get what she thinks is a special drink, an Iced Venti Water, she even asks for it like that. Tonight we asked them to put their waters in a hot cup, the kids thought it was the coolest thing! When I asked them to show me their cups for a quick picture they put them on their heads, Trevor thought Isabelle was hilarious! We also got them gingerbread cookies, Isabelle LOVED her "doll" cookie.

We made our way downtown to look at lights and we found 2 beautifully decorated neighborhoods. The kids enjoyed walking up and down the streets looking at all the beautiful decorations. They ohed and awed the entire night!

It was so much fun watching the kids get excited and Freddie and I couldn't help but get excited every time we found a cool street to go down.

The night was perfect until we got home. We had dropped Trevor off at home and made our way inside the house and both girls began meltdowns. Calista was hungry and Isabelle was just being naughty, I ignored her for a minute until Freddie came in and he asked what was wrong and I casually said, "She is just being a S-N-O-T." and she looked at me and replied, "No I am not, you're a S-N-O-T!!" We got a good laugh out of that!

Visiting Santa

Today I took the girls to go see Santa with my good friend Rose and her kids, Jack & Abby. Isabelle has been looking forward to it since I told her we were going. When Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she didn't hesitate, she said she wanted a pink cash register and a pink remote control (AKA a pink Xbox remote like Daddy's). Freddie LOVES that she wants an xbox controller, even though she can't play any games. He spent hours this weekend spray painting one of his controllers for her. It turned out great, pink and sparkly!



Jack and Abby also had their picture taken with Santa, it is hands down the funniest Santa picture ever! Jack is smiling so sweetly and Abby was screaming! A classic right of passage! The funniest part is the second Abby left Santa, she was smiling and happy like moments before.



Here is a picture of me and my twin brother Garrett with Santa, I am not sure what year this was.... Any guesses Mom?