Christmas Day...

I am still teased by my siblings (and parents for that matter) about being the child who woke everyone one up super early for Christmas every year. Now they have turned me into a grouchy old no morning person. Happy?

They should be glad to know that we slept in to 6:58 at the Karafa house this year.

Good thing to, because I am pretty sure we just missed Santa. Or so Jordan thinks...

Two very excited Christmas boys...

He's Lotso... can you tell?

The big hits of the day...

Merry Christmas to All!!

Christmas Eve...

This year for Christmas Eve we actually stayed home. We are usually celebrating with one of the Grandparents but this was a nice little change for us.

The boys and I spent the morning decorating gingerbread cookies for us & Santa. It sure made the house smell AMAZING!

Jordan was very meticulous in his decorating. Not a stray sprinkle in sight... almost.

Dillon had more fun eating our creations then actually making them.

I prepared a Christmas feast of Ham, corn, funeral potatoes and Blair's favorite dessert (in lieu of b-day cake). Noticeably missing were the rolls that were an EPIC failure!!

After dinner we had our little Christmas program. Jordan serenaded the family with the songs he learned at school and Dillon sang Jingle Bells, which is the only song currently in his arsenal. I tried to read the boys a story from The Friend about the true meaning of Christmas, but they just wanted to know why I was crying.

The Hunt family tradition of opening new jammies for Christmas continued...

And our very own Karafa tradition of opening a new ornament for the tree carried on as well...

We got into our jammies and settled in for a family viewing of "The Christmas Story". It was a wonderful day!

Happy Happy Birthday Dillon Dear...

Yesterday (the 21st ) was the birthday of my little sweetie Dillon James. I cannot believe my baby is already 4 years old. Time goes by way too fast.

A Birthday SourPuss

We celebrated first by going to Amazing Jakes's on Saturday with G&G Hunt.Well and Ben & Courtney & Noah too (of course)The boys had an AMAZING TIME! The loved the pizza and pasta buffet and all the games. 

We most enjoyed the bowling, air hockey and laser tag. Dillon like laser tag because he got to shoot little girls. Such a Romeo that one. He has been asking for a Pillow Pet every time the commercial comes on or we go to Wal-Mart and big brother came through. I treasure these brief moments of brotherly love.

They have a ride that is called the Froggy Hopper. The kids are strapped in while the ride goes up and drops them down slowly and repeats. Blair and I had the best laugh watching Dillon's face when the ride dropped. He smiled all the way up then cringed the whole way down. When he got off the ride he was laughing and kept saying "I peed my pants, I peed my pants"! I took him to the bathroom (dry) and figured that the sensation of his stomach dropping must have made the poor thing think he was peeing!


We celebrated with the Karafa family on the actual birthday. Dillon requested a store bought cake. After the "Elmo Fiasco of 2007" who could blame the kid. He also wanted chicken noodle potato soup and rolls. It was delicious. The boys and I spent our afternoon at Dollar Tree gathering supplies for hand made birthday hats. Since we celebrate Grandpa, Dillon & Daddy's birthdays all at once we wanted it  to be festive.

He looks so much like a "Mini Barry" (my Dad) here...

Fun Facts about a Four year old DILLON:

• His favorite color is orange
• His favorite thing to eat is hangabers (hamburgers)
• His favorite movie is Toy Story
• He is 33 pounds... lightweight
• His favorite toy is stuffed animals (beanies to be exact)
• He loves going to a party

Happy Birthday Pickles!!

Making Soup...

About 4 months ago (wow, they went by fast) Aunt Gill was camped out at our house watching the boys for me. One night after giving the midgets a bath I came out into the upstairs TV room to watch some TV with Gill and noticed a strange smell. Almost like when you melt a plastic spoon in the bottom of your dishwasher. I asked Gill what the smell was and she said she didn't smell anything.

All my life my Dad has teased me about my 4 S's... Super Sensitive Sense of Smell. I shrugged off the smell and went about my night. Not too much later Dad came home from work and bellowed up the stairs "Are you trying to burn down the house"?

After heading downstairs to investigate I found my old crockpot (pulled out of the garage for a yardsale) plugged in by the front door. Inside was 1 pair of little boy underwear, 1 red Mickey Mouse croc shoe and 1 baby monitor... batteries included.

When I came too after inhaling the toxic fumes (just kidding but almost) I questioned the only midget still awake, who was also the most likely culprit and he fessed up that the "Crock Pot Undie Soup" was his creation.

Have I mentioned he is awesome?

Our Family...

We had family pictures taken the other night. After the shoot we spent a while visiting with Grandma Karafa. Somehow a story about Dillon came up and Grandma mentioned I needed to write it down. It gave me the push I needed to start blogging again. It really is about keeping track of the magical moments we spend together (whether they occur at Disneyland or not) :)

It's not only the stories I have been missing, but the pictures too.

I treasure pictures of my favorite people!

So here's to regularly posting again. And to telling My little Pickles awesomely hilarious story!

Little Champ...

Saturday was the second to last game of the season. Jordan's Coach, "Coach Joe" was deployed overseas on Sunday so it was a little bit of a celebration for him and the players.

The last few months have been a whirlwind of practices, games, snack assignments and lost shin guards. I feel like after this week I will be able to breather again. I never fully understood what being a "Soccer Mom" meant. It means you eat, sleep  & breathe soccer for 3 months at a time. It is exhausting!

Jordan was really resistant to playing soccer. Blair and I are so proud of him! He put such an effort into learning the game and always played his hardest. Best of all he has had a great time doing it.

Way to go Champ! We love #6!

Celebrations...

We kicked off the holiday season this year by seeing Zoolights with the Karafa's. It's becoming a tradition that the boys love! Their facorite is the talking Giraffe who magically knows their name. Mine is the "Dancing Tree's"...

We visited with Grandma Hunt and the gang the day after Thanksgiving. The kids had a ball decorating Grandma's tree for her. Aunt Betsy had a great time (I'm sure) re-decorating the top 8 ft. of the tree left noticeably bare.

The other night the boys and I enjoyed some hot cocoa.

This was to make up for the "nasty" (in their own words) tea I had made for them the night before. It was herbal and caffeine free, and all I had in the pantry. I took my lumps though... they outed me to the home teacher for making tea. That was an awesome first visit.