Beach in December

Bryan's sister, Jessica, came home for Christmas break and she came with our family to the beach, and for some kayaking. It was a PERFECT day: nice weather, no wind.

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas, and hopefully the boys will have great memories when they get older of spending the night at Grandpa and Nana Niven's house. Here are some pictures from Christmas........

Helping Nana with the flannel board story of the Nativity on Christmas Eve.

These boys are very tired on Christmas Eve and ready to go to bed!

And the grand finale............ Barbara got us all matching Team Edward pajamas that we got to open on Christmas Eve......too funny!

Gingerbread Girl Play

Ethan's kindergarten class put on a "Gingerbread Girl" play that was so cute! Ethan chose to be a goat for the play. All the kids did a fantastic job, you can really tell they must have practiced it quite a bit. Here's a video of Ethan's part with the other goats.....

Here are a few pics...

Thanksgiving 2009

I didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving since I forgot my camera, but I got a few on my iPhone and a few from Bryan. We went over to Bryan's parents and had a very yummy dinner and a great time visiting Bryan's Great Aunt and Uncle who I met for the first time. Earlier, the boys helped Grandpa put up the lights and even got to ride on Grandpa's firetruck he made when Bryan was little.

Posting Away

Wow! Four posts in one night! I'm on a roll.....actually I'm just sick and should be resting in bed. So this will be a short one. My husband just finished his latest Reality Shoot image of the Hopkins family. Check it out here.

This is Halloween......

Bryan decided the kids were old enough (?) to watch "Nightmare Before Christmas", (his personal favorite Halloween show), and now both of them have been marching around singing, "This is Halloween, This is Halloween...." I should have got that on camera. Anyway, we had a fun Halloween.

This pumpkin was the one Ethan picked from the pumpkin patch for his school field trip, and he let Daddy carve it for him.

Last year Ethan was Buzz and Austin was Spiderman. This year Ethan was able to reuse his costume and Austin dressed up as Woody.

Ethan is trying to show Austin how to push his "power buttons." The fun of having boys......everything is about superheroes and pushing their power buttons.

This next one cracks me up......for some reason Austin is holding his hat in a way that reminds me of some musical where the cowboy is singing to his lady. And Austin loves to sing!

These next two are from Ethan's Halloween party and parade at school.

Field Trip Fun

One thing I like about Ethan's school is the high parental involvement. I enjoy going in once a month and teaching them about the Composer of the Month, and I also get to help out occasionally with centers, activities, and field trips. Hmmm..... I guess that's why I'm even busier now with Ethan in school. We've already gone on two field trips, and they have another one planned in a few weeks. The first field trip was to an Apple Farm in Ojai, and the second was to McGrath's Pumpkin Patch here in Camarillo.

The first day of school Ethan met a boy in his class named Joshua, and they have been buddies in school ever since. I guess Joshua has an older brother named Ethan, so he connected with him right away.

Off To School

Ethan turned 5 in July and started Kindergarten in August. He's almost been in school now for three months and is really enjoying it......except for the part where he has to wake up early and get ready. We are still struggling with that. Here are a few pictures of his first few days.....

Handing in his name tag at the end of the day.....
Austin was so funny the first week or so. He insisted I pack him a lunch and was very disappointed that he couldn't stay with "E-E" as he calls him.

There is a really fun park next to Ethan's school that I would take Austin to every day the first week as he adjusted to his brother being at school. Now he calls this park "my preschool."

Summer Fun

I am a little slow at getting this up, but here are a few of the fun things we did this summer.

Ethan turned 5 in July and got this Tony Hawk bike for his birthday.

I think this next picture is hilarious. From the left is Gavin, Bailey, Austin, and Ethan. Gavin and Bailey are my twin sister's kids. They live in Utah and came for a visit in August. Bailey is making a peace sign with her fingers and Austin is trying to figure something out with his. ;)

Ethan surprised me on this next one. I didn't think he would want to try the zip line, but he didn't want to stop!

Days at the beach.......

Fun rides in Bryan's kayak....

Pirate Days

at Channel Islands Harbor

Santa Barbara Natural Museum

Butterfly Exhibit

with Kami, Ian, and Quintin

Ian and Ethan

Wings Over Camarillo

It started out to be very windy, but not for long. We had fun watching all the planes.

Wish I Were a Farmer

As I plan out my day of things to get done, I realize I am going, going, going from early morning hours until after the kids have gone to bed and I am struggling to keep my eyes open. And while I have thought of several blogs in my head that I could post, I have not found the time to actually 'blog' them.

Seeing my husband's latest work of art, (and also going with my son on a fieldtrip to an organic farm yesterday), makes me wish I were a farmer. Some people would disagree and say, "but then you have to wake up at the crack of dawn." Since I currently wake up at 5:00 a.m., which to me is the crack of dawn, I naturally started to compare the pros and cons of being a farmer.....okay, maybe just the pros. Instead of waking up extremely early to sit in front of a computer, typing speedily away at doctor's clinic notes, hoping to find some time for some physical exercise, I would be able to go outside for most of the day and enjoy nature with the bonus of physical exercise, a sun tan, and growing our own food. Sounds good to me. :)

With that thought in mind, click below to see Bryan's latest image he created for XanGo's Go Magazine:

Bryan's new image