More Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving with the Frasers

We had so much fun at the Frasers' club.  It is gorgeous there in Almaden Valley.  Golden hills, roaming wildlife, the kids love the caves, and the food is amazing.  The men loved the filets and I loved the salads and trimmings.  Just to die for.  Thank you Craig for letting us come for another splendid Thanksgiving meal with the family.  I didn't get a group shot, so we'll have to settle for the kids on the floor with Colton playing after eating, and Olivia and Claire making a fort under the table.

Livvy's Preschool Thanksgiving Meal with her preschool friends that we tried to duplicate with her Thomander cousins on Thanksgiving Day below.

Next day...!!!

Anna played in a Soccer Turkey Tournament.

We even got to go on a romantic date.  Here are our baby-sitters, Rachel and Teejay.  The kids built a candy-house with them and we're ecstatic about all of the attention from them for a couple of hours!

And one last Thanksgiving Parade to end a wonderful weekend to celebrate Teejay and Rachel's wedding and being with family.  How grateful we are for all the fun times and wonderful relationships we share with them.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had such a fun weekend!  Starting with Taylor and Rachel's Palo Alto Reception.

The food was divine...all homemade and a gazillion desserts, including my mom's famous Pumpkin Cheesecake.

Olivia loved jumping on the trampoline with cousins.

Anna loved hanging out at the fire pit, too old to jump, but a very cool older sister.

If you're trying to find Ella, just look for Rachel, Meg or any wife of my brother's, and even though they're busy greeting guests and busy, Ella is at their side.

We followed everyone up to Santa Cruz.  Liv wanting to be a baby in Colton's carseat.

Indie and Tosh are visiting from Hawaii.  They are such a great family.

Zorea, Tauna's little girl, is so sweet.

We walked out to the lighthouse.  The pictures came out, even though it was already pretty dark by the time we got out there.
We haven't even posted pictures of dinner yet, so those will be fun to look over and post next.

Eric's I-phone Pictures of my 40th Birthday!!!!

 Oh my gosh, I'm 40 years old today.  Will I always feel so tired?  Will I always get to hold a bundle of baby joy?  I better enjoy every moment of it, because I'll be too old to hold him by the time he turns 5!

 Another beautiful San Francisco Day.

 The amazing peanut butter cup birthday cake, made by my momma, the gourmet chef.  My favorite candy-bar too.  Things are looking better about this birthday.  I think I'll ask my mom for this cake every year.  Less than a year to go to have it again!  Counting the days!

 Why are train rides so fun?  Remember the spooky part at Lemo's Farm.  Everyone cuddles and screams.  They have a very, very scary haunted house that we haven't been in.  Something for next time to look forward to maybe.  I'm not sure.

 Ella is a natural with horses, dogs, cats, etc.  She is just her happiest with animals, period.

 They had a very tactile play-pen for Colton filled with corn kernals.  He's into anything he can crawl around in, so he could have stayed here for a long time.

These are the pictures from Eric and Anna's cameras.    This pumpkin patch in Petaluma had a corn maze that takes 45 minutes to walk through, even with a map.  Olivia got so claustrophic, she suddenly ran away from us trying to get out, and put us all in a panic.  I think that this is the same corn maze that someone dialed 911 for help getting out.  We stayed at the KOA again, and of course took pictures on the Golden Gate Bridge for my 40th birthday.  I hate being 40, but actually, it doesn't feel that different than 39.  I'm kidding, because someone told me I look much younger than 40, that I look 39.  What's the difference?  I WAS 39 12 hours ago.  Anyway, I am just so happy that my friends and family will hang out with me as I get older. Being 40 is worth it when you are with people you love, even though the ups and down keep coming.  When will things just be wonderful?  Never.  I'm saying this because we just got finished sleep-training Colton to sleep through the night, and it broke our hearts hearing him sob in his crib, but I have to admit that we are all feeling much better now that we are well rested.  Eric and I are trying to memorize his smell and snuggle because we know how fast it goes.  Speaking of growing up,  Olivia is still loving preschool and having her Thanksgiving Feast tomorrow.  She will be an indian.  Ella just finished fall swim team in the red group.  Anna brought home a 99% correct math test today!  Math is not her best subject, so everytime she does that, we feel extra proud of her hard work and accomplishment.   These kids are keeping us on our toes.

Anna's Soccer Season Now

The games...

 

The fans... 

The Friends...(New and

                                                                      Old)

The stats...

Out of 8 games, she had 11 goals.  She will play for the All-City Team this winter.  go girl!

Undefeated, not that that's important

AYSO strives to be non-competative and emphasize player development, instead of keeping score.  So, I will not mention that Ella's team, the 49's,coached by Eric, won 6 of their games and tied 3.  And I also did not notice the letters and gifts of adoration that he received thanking him for bringing out the best in each player and for getting the kids to win simply with sheer love and fun tactics.  Thank you Eric for spending four nights a week on the field and your whole Saturdays as well.  It was an exciting season and we had a blast. TWe really appreciated the Frasers coming out to watch the games!  They treated us to Fresh Choice and Mad Fish as well as buying new churches dresses at Target!  They made friends easily with the other families because of the good vibes they send out to everyone from the sidelines!

Celebrating the end of the season at Ike's Lair yesterday.  One fun part of soccer, making new friends.

These are the fierce faces our girls gave the opposing teams.  Eva is the Team Mom's daughter and now Ella's friend.

It was so fun to have Greta on Ella's team this year.

Kiley and Mia are school friends who we tried to kill in another "friendly" game of soccer.