A Dozen for JD!

Well, the middle one has officially entered "pre-teen" status. My not so little JD is 12 and on his way...

I love celebrating his birthday because he always gets super excited and he's so genuine with his reactions (that's all the days actually). Anyway, this year (as most) it was pretty low-key. While the big kids were at school, Teage and I quickly got working on his cake. What a big helper...

After they got home, we enhanced the celebrating by going to the FRG Christmas Party. It was nice and they all had a great time decorating cookies and such.

They even had a Holiday photo spot...which I couldn't resist.

After we snuck out of the party early, we headed to Chili's for dinner (his choice)...but by then all he wanted to do was get home and open presents. Of course, we had to do the cake first.


I love how in this picture he is basically telling Teage to back off the cake.


But, as all good parents know and do...we relit the fire and let Teage get a turn. I'm screaming "Back up, you're going to burn your face off!"


First gift...open it up brother!


It's a...pair of shoes?! Ahh...the fake smile, which let's me know my plan worked!


He said, "OH...shoes, thank you". Open the shoes, JD. "What? Another present?" (Teage could hardly contain himself)


And the struggle begins...


He wanted the Lego Indy Jones Games 2 on the Wii, BAAAD! He was so happy...

OK, on to the next one. Now, let me just give you the comparison. Here he is getting his Visa Gift Card...

What is up with that? His reaction is like he almost is disgusted with it. He could care less about this cold hard cash right in front of him (ahh, the innocence). Hilarious.

Finally, the next gift...from Teage and Saige! (Again, Teage was about to burst!!)

I guess Shorts is a boy type movie. All I hear is about the Booger Monster...mmmmm!

I think he enjoyed his day. I can't wait to celebrate again when we get to PHX...Dave and Buster's is gonna rock.

Birthdays make me so nostalgic. I think about how fast time zinged by and how much growing up has taken place. How did it go from here to now, SO FAST?


HAPPY BIRTHDAY my J-dle Deedle...

Santa!!

My kids finally got to see the one and only true Kris Kringle (alright, maybe he was just a guy "helping" Santa...and not the real one).

The only issue I had with the whole first time Holiday meeting was that I think Santa was hitting the bottle before chair call time (allegedly). OK, just take a look for yourself (these dramatizations have been created for this blog, and YES...it went down exactly like this):

*please click on the pics to see them larger*

I could not stop laughing the whole entire time. It was like they just picked this guy up off the street and threw him in a red suit. His beard gave me problems from the get-go. What is that? It totally makes me think of Bad Santa. And the look on my kids' faces...they're not dumb...they could probably smell the Jim Beam on his breath. I should have taken a hint when I saw that NO ONE was in line to see him when we walked up. I thought we scored...but apparently Santa was the only one scoring that night...with a flask and some Visine. So what do you do in a situation like this, you ask? You tell your kids Santa's being goofy and to join in...they gladly obliged!


I was in such a delirious state, that I said we ALL have to get in on this one...and I'm glad we did. Who knew inebriated Santas could be fun for everyone! HA!


Check back for JD's Birthday post later today...LOVE YA!

Happy Christmas To All...

Well, the reindeer have come and gone and Santa has come through like a champ way over here in Japan for the last time for us. The day was fantastic and all the kids were really excited to see what the North Pole had delivered. JD was awake first (around 5:30 in the AM) and it was way too early to start. (Even though when we were growing up we would be really loud at around 5am in order to wake everyone and start). We ended up having Saige and JD come downstairs and enjoy some hot cocoa while we waited for Teage. They are so awesome...

JD couldn't stand it though and kept creepin' on the tree.

Finally, Teage woke up and came running downstairs...JD was there to greet him. --awwwww--

I have tons of pics...as many do on Christmas morning, but I opted for posting the ones with everyone holding up their gifts from George's parents and Alex's family so they could get a glimpse on how much fun it was. Saige received a heap of clothes overall, with the majority coming from the other Isla's. She loves her tees....

Teage loves the awesome laptop...

And as if everyone didn't already know...anything green is right up my alley, YAY!!

George and I really banked this year...

We asked Teage to take a picture with some clothes from the grandparents and he grabbed ALL of them. How cute!

One of the gifts JD got was a keyboard. We purchased piano lessons for him a couple months ago (my friend Amanda is a music teacher), so we waited until he got his keyboard so he could hone the skills he learns while they are still fresh. He was all over it right away getting his dad to teach him a few songs.

Here they all are finally getting to the stockings...this is obviously post Teage's striptease and the gift packaging receptacle's entrance.

Lastly, Teage's fave gift was his quad from Santa. He immediately wanted to head outside and test drive that sucker...the funny thing was, he kept riding it like this-

I have no idea why he kept leaning back like he was cruising the strip. I was cracking up.

Everything went awesome and I was really glad the kids were all so grateful for what they had gotten. WHEW...now that that's all over, time to get ready for 2009!!! Love ya!!

Extra Extra...read all about it!

Well, we started the weekend off Friday by driving home and finding a Japanese maintenance van on FIRE across the street from our house. I mean on fire like you see in the movies. Not sure how it all started, but thank God no one was nearby or worse...in the dang car. I ran inside to grab my camera so I could prove that crazy things really do "just happen" around me. The Fire Dept and MP's were quite fast in getting there and so the car next to it only caught on fire a little. I was worried about it causing an explosion so close to where people lived. Here's the burning vehicle...

Before:

After:

Crazy huh?

Anyway, that same night was George's BN Holiday Social. I was a little reluctant to go at first because of the fact that I have been so drained and stuff and in need some serious downtime. But we went (George needed to represent for his soldiers) and we ended having a really good time. And maybe the dinner wasn't worth the $25 each we paid for it...but, the drinks made up for it :o) . And as predicted, the electric slide was the first song to play and I went there. The girls and I were in rare form as we pretty much dominated the dance floor and the photo ops! Check it all out...

I started going the wrong way I guess...I am always the odd one out!


Here come the group shots...

George was in the eggnog baby bottle contest...he's got skills!

Later that night...

Yes, it's karaoke time again...

Good friends...Good times to be had!

Next...JD had his first baskeball game Saturday. Let me preface by saying that JD is no Shaq (although he does have Shaq shoes...thanks Grandma!), but he wants to do well and loves being on a team. He's number 15 and if you need to ever pass him the ball...his hands are always up. We'll be working on the body blocking at the next practice. We were so proud of him for his first time. Plus...they won by double the points!! Here's my star...

Teage wanted to run out on court as you can imagine...so we took it outside the gym for a bit.

And lastly, here is my boy in action. I hear the Heat calling...

Love ya...

A Festive Holiday

Well, JD had his 3rd year peformance with Choir and he did awesome!! He had two narration parts this year. He really loves performing...still waiting for the local theater to put on a children's production so he can audition. Check out my little rat packer...



and the Santa Claus Rock...



and when the Hispanic Christmas song came on..guess who decided to chime in??



Gotta love the Holiday School Performances!!!
Thanks for looking...

Double Ones and HO HO HO!

Well, it's official I have a new tween in the house. JD reached double one status and really enjoyed his birthday week. I brought a cake to his class to share on Wed. He got up in front of the class as they sang the song and then he graciously bowed and repeated "thank you very much everyone". It was adorable. That night we gave him the choice to pick anywhere he wanted to go for dinner; choices like Teppanyaki, Chili's, the Marina....my boy picks McDonald's (which wasn't one of the options...hmmm). Go figure! He's like wimpy...He loves his cheeseburgers. So we went (man I wanted Teppanyaki) and after we came home, he opened up his presents from us. He had a board game thing going on since we are trying to get him more involved in "group" play. He always wants to play alone and so we keep trying to break that up a little more and give him opportunities to interact with others in play. He's doing well with that so far. So here we are all playing one of his games...the Dr Seuss game he was eyeballing in the PX a few days back.

And of course, Teage was doing everything JD was doing...

On Sunday, we capped off the celebration by taking a few of his friends to lunch, mini-golf, and to see the flick "Bolt". They had a great time and it was very stress free, which is something I needed after this long as heck week. Here's the Birthday boy...(can you spot the 2 year old?).

Lunch was funny...as you can see!

Cake time!!

And then..the mini-golf challenge!!

OK...so I forgot to mention that while we were eating lunch (about 15 minutes into the party), Teage decided to empty his whole drink onto his lap...hence the pull-up!! How cute is he though? But wait...he lost his ball in the frog's bottom?? This picture screams a topic for one of those motivational posters!! "GOLF...Who said it was boring?"...I don't know!

And here's all of them...sucked into the tree.


Hippo's are fun...ask Saige!

More presents. YAY!

And front row at the movies. Nice floor...must be a pastime for the kids to throw their drinks in excitement.

He had a great time...Thanks to his buddies for making it a special day!

On top of that and amongst a plethora of other things...the FRG hosted it's annual Christmas party for all the Families and Soldiers. It was a great success. I was in charge of Santa pictures and the picture frame craft. Check out my kiddies getting their Santa on...

And the FRG Leaders...

And last but not least...this is what the Holiday Spirit is all about!! Hands down!

Love Ya!!!