Happy New Year

In honor of Chinese New Year today, I am posting pictures of our celebrations for the Gregorian calendar New Year... we had a fun week with the Cameron family staying with us, and extended Finlay family in town to play with as well.

We decorated candy houses during the week after Christmas this year.  It is always fun to see the ideas everyone comes up with and how different they can be. We were lucky to have a gorgeous day to keep the mess outside.

The adults all enjoyed a dinner out with our good friends at Buca di Beppo.  

The 4 oldest kids were invited to join us, and were so excited to be seated in their own booth across the aisle from us.  The toddlers all stayed home with babysitters.

We always love the chance to see the floats up close before the parade.  Preston was especially excited about the fire truck.

And the kids were all lucky enough to help place some of the plants on this float while we were there.

New Year's morning was spent at the parade route.  Kids loved continuing the tradition of running around and shooting each other with silly string while we waited for the parade.

The Disney float was huge-3 separate platforms with bridges connecting them.

We had a fun breakfast with the family at Santa Anita race track, watching the horses race.

Celebrated the new year with the smashing of our candy houses.

And had nights talking around the fire.

Christmas 2015

Christmas this year was magical, yet again.  We celebrated with James' family and loved the time together.

We enjoyed attending parties with friends and family.

With lots of treats to try

Santa brought everyone new pajamas

We moved into our new house and got up a few decorations

On Christmas Eve morning we enjoyed a girl's morning out to breakfast at Mimi's Cafe.

Brielle was excited to join us and loved the chance to eat crepes with nutella

That night we celebrated at Larry and Lisa's house.

We all love the tradition of the taco truck party.  I am pretty sure Ethan ate at least 8 tacos.  

Christmas morning was so much fun.  Preston didn't understand or remember Christmas before it happened, but now, a month later he is still talking about it.  'Jingle Bells' is still sung frequently and is often requested as his bedtime song.

Every meal was incredible, as is always the case with so many good cooks in the family.

The kids did a scavenger hunt for their present-a trip to Texas for a Finlay family reunion to visit Steve and Alana before they move.  The excitement of looking for the clues proved a little bit too much for Ethan, who in his hurry ran himself into the swimming pool.

It was a blessing to make more memories with 4 of the kids' Great Grandparents and all 10 Finlay cousins together.

The Move

We are slowly getting settled--so time for some catching up.  First, about the move.  We decided to move right before Christmas so that we didn't have to worry about packing over Christmas break.  

We got the keys to the house Tuesday night (December 15th).  We went over to celebrate with a family toast and sparkling cider in our new empty kitchen.

Preston was my right-hand man with all the packing.  He was great at climbing in the boxes to make sure they were sturdy enough to hold our possessions.

We started moving the 17th of December.  James was able to take the morning off so we could move boxes over.  We had the help of our friend Charlene, Margaret and Evan.  Another friend, Larry let us borrow his truck and trailer.

Ethan wanted to stay and help move rather than go play with cousins.  He was great to have around as an assistant on moving day.

We were very thankful for all our family and friends close by to help with kids and moving.  It went pretty quickly with so much man power.

The kids love hiking to the water tower just above the house.  It has a fantastic view of the San Gabriel Valley and downtown Los Angeles.

Ethan immediately tried to make friends with a lizard in our backyard.

And Preston was excited when the new trash cans were delivered.  Everything is new and fun and exciting around here.

First project

We are still living with boxes surrounding us, unpacking things as we need them, but James (with some help) completed the first project at the new house.  Garage floors are epoxied and look great!

New House

It's official!  We closed last week, sellers moved out yesterday, we got the keys today.  The house is now ours!  We move in this weekend and will post more pictures as we settle in.

Letters to Santa

Preston didn't know or understand the concept of wanting anything specific, but the big kids were excited about writing letters to Santa.  Brielle's makes me laugh.

Thankful Tree

Another November flew past.  We enjoyed focusing on gratitude all month with our tradition of our Thankful Tree.

Preston said he was thankful for church every single time.  So we have a lot of 'church' leaves.

When pressed he would say 'class', and even once came up with giraffe.  But usually it was 'church' every single night.

Everyone else had lots of varied ideas.  So many things we have to be thankful for!