This is the Place!

We spent 1 week of our Christmas Break in Utah visiting the Manahans. To make this easier to eventually publish into a book, I'm going to post each activity there individually instead of posting the longest post ever. Trust me, you'll thank me later.

We arrived late in the day on Dec. 26 and began our adventures on Dec. 27. First we had to finish off Christmas. The Danny Fong family needed to give to the Manahans and the Michael Fong family needed to give to us. Simple enough, right?

Jared received a baseball glove, jock strap and cup from Mike and Jen. He had no idea what it was or what to do with it. Here was his first guess:


With a little help from Uncle Shawn (and another guess on his part...) here was his second try:


We then put the kids down for naps and the "older children" began to play with the new toys.

Dancing Queen

We told Liz that when soccer came to an end she could sign up for dance class. Normally she forgets things we tell her immediately after we say them (this comes in handy actually!) but not with this promise. She has questioned us multiple times as to when her dance class would be starting. Finally, with the start of the new year, her class began.

It is a ballet/jazz class and there are only 5 little girls in it. Whenever the music is on, Liz is dancing whether the teacher is ready or not. Luckily she has the movie Barbie Nutcracker and already has a ton of dance moves. Here are some action shots:



Here is she is strutting her stuff while the others are waiting patiently for instruction:


And the one negative moment in class - the teacher made them sit down by the trash can! (From my perspective: the teacher asked the girls to sit down and suddenly Liz had this upset expression on her face. I was wondering what had happened. After class I asked her why she was sad and she said, "She made me sit by the trash can.") Liz has this amazingly strong sense of smell. She smells things long before anyone else does. Obviously a low point for Liz!

Hi Dada

Just before Christmas Lucas started saying something new..."Da da da da da." If he's cued, he'll say what sounds like, "Hi Dada" much to Danny's delight. Why do they ALWAYS say Dad before Mom??? Our kids are 3 for 3 saying Da Da long before Ma Ma. Jared is drowning him out in the video but hopefully you can hear Luke. I love when they find their voices!

Christmas Day

My old Christmas posts are almost over, I promise!

After all the excitement of Christmas morning, Elizabeth and Lucas needed naps. When they finally woke up, we headed to the Driggs' home for more celebrating! Unfortunately my pictures of the event are terrible! The Repettis were there from Vista (Carolyn, Mike, Cameron, Natalie and Ashley), the Marcrofts (Thad, Allie, Sam and Nathan), the Driggs (Mike, Stephanie and their roommate Janette), Grandpa and Grandma Driggs, and us! We had a delicious dinner, enjoyed lots of great conversation, and then opened presents. We had a great time seeing everyone and the kids got some incredible loot! Here are some junky photos!


We left the Driggs around 10 PM and raced home to pack up Danny, Jared and Lizzie. We had everything loaded in the car around midnight. We then loaded the 2 oldest kids and Dan who drove to Granada Hills to spend the night in preparation for their drive to Utah the next day. It was a crazy, fun filled Christmas day to say the least!

Christmas Morning

Late much?

We left the day after Christmas for Utah and returned home just in time to return to work. This is the first moment I've had to blog about Christmas day. Now that my excuse has been rendered - here are some pictures of our festivities!

Christmas Eve started a new tradition for us. Normally we travel to Granada Hills for Christmas Eve and spend the night. This year Grandma and Grandpa Fong came to our house for a visit. We ate Chinese for dinner and then made a stop at Bob and Jill Peterson's house for their annual Christmas Eve bash. We've never been in town to attend their party and the kids had fun running all over with Jill's boys. Dan spent the evening talking to Bob and I chatted with all the girls!

On Christmas morning Jared and Liz were up around 6:15 AM. Their grandparents were asleep where all the presents were so the kids had to wait for a bit in our bedroom. The waiting was torture for them! When Dan and I thought they were going to implode, Dan went out to see if we could release them. We had left one gift unwrapped and the rest wrapped - it was fun to see them race to their open gifts and immediately begin playing. Liz received 4 dress-up costumes and Jared received a hulk costume and battle gear.


Here they are trying on their costumes:


And here is Jared trying out his moves with his new battle gear:


Eventually we convinced them that there might be even cooler things hidden in the wrapped gifts! The first gift was something Jared made in school for Mom and Dad. Our first homemade gift from a child! I was very impressed (must be my first one!!).


Then the wrapping paper began flying! Here are a few favorite gifts:



A couple of hours into our adventure Lucas decided to join us (lucky kid slept in!). He had a lot of work to do to catch up with his siblings. Mostly he enjoyed eating the wrapping paper and his presents.



Not to be forgotten, Danny received mostly Lakers themed presents:


Phew! It was a fun morning!!! Here are a few final shots of the kids enjoying their presents; Jared playing with floam, Lucas with his first dolly, and a shot of Liz's underwear. Yep, underwear. She received a huge pack and promptly put on ALL of the pairs. She could barely move but left them on for a long time! I'll save the shot of her wearing them for her personal blog.




Merry Christmas!

Christmas Gaiety

Here are a few things we did this year to let the good Christmas times roll!

First, we tried our hands at decorating cookies. Jared actually took his time and decorated them with various frosting colors and sprinkles. Liz's mantra was "A little frosting for my cookie, a little frosting for my mouth." I was the official taste tester...




Next, we decorated our Christmas tree. The night Dan put it up he only brought out the tree, no ornaments. Jared immediately made ornaments from paper adorned with stickers. The next night we brought out the real ornaments and let the decorating madness begin. Liz worked her magic on the mini tree while Jared focused on the big tree.




The kids really enjoyed these activities and that makes it all worth it!

Santa Baby

Okay, so these posts are old but we were super busy getting ready for Christmas and then left the next day for Utah. There just wasn't enough time for blogging...incredible, I know!

We'll start with the Ward Christmas Party - always a great way to start the season. The food was delicious, the kids loved the crafts, and the entertainment was not too long! Jared (and the other primary children) ended the show on stage singing. Lizzie was doing her own performance in front of the stage and wouldn't return to me -- she was even singing "I won't come to you, Mommy" to the tune of Jingle Bells but that's a whole nother story! Then it was time for Santa. Jared was well prepared this year and had written a list - a very long list. We'll just say Santa was a little overwhelmed.


Liz was actually willing to sit with Santa this year. She was very excited all day but then got a little iffy in line. She was clinging to me and very unsure. When I walked over to Santa and handed her off I half expected her to start crying and return to me but she didn't! She looked at Santa, quickly listed off what she wanted, and hopped off his lap.


Unfortunately Santa didn't come until close to 8:30 and Lucas was already fast asleep in Daddy's arms. There's always next year! Luckily Luke has been very good this year and Santa already knew exactly what he wanted.