30th Birthday/Family Christmas!

We celebrated my 30th birthday (I know I can't believe it either!) and Christmas early this year, since I was leaving for Utah on my birthday. We celebrated it all in one fun night. 

1st Birthday Time! 

Present time...I got slippers from my brother Bryce, I love slippers! Eric gave me a sonic toothbrush.  Alex and Amanda gave me a cute scarf.  Eric's parents gave me a jewelry box, which will be so nice! Oh..and Eric also got me a really cute coat that I bought myself! Thanks hunny!  And then my parents wanted to do something special for my 30th and give me something that I would remember the big birthday with. They gave me a white gold, london topaz ring.  It is really modern and cute. I LOVED it! I was totally surprised and shocked with the gift.  I was a nice birthday surprise.

The kids were so excited to celebrate Christmas early...they were hyper and the life of the party.

Cooper loved the candles on the cake.  They sang Happy Birthday to me! It was nice!

 And then...right when I was going to BLOW...Easton blew them out!  little stinker!!!!!

 I finished the two remaining ones that he left.  Look at his face...he knew what he did!

It feels great to be 30!

CHRISTMAS TIME!

Christmas PJ's!

Eric gave me Clues for my Christmas Present.  I will post about it later, so stay tuned. 

 The clues were 5 round metal plates that had letters stamped on them.  B,G,S,T,O. The B one had 2 and 8 of them. And the G had 12 of them stamped.  All confusing. I had no idea.  It took a week to figure it out. With help from Eric of course. 

 Cooper loved playing with all the toys!  He especially loved Easton's skateboard until it hit him in the mouth and made him bleed like crazy. Fun times!

 Eric got a skateboard too from my parents. So now he and Easton can go play outside together.

We had to try them out!  They had fun..even though it was really cold.

Cooper and his presents! 

Brooklyn and her presents.  Grandma Jo spoiled her with clothes, jewelry and a jewelry box.

 Easton and his presents.  He got the clothes and lego toy story from Grandma Jo.

I hope they had a great Christmas!  It was a fun night.  And it was also a surprise for them, they didn't know that we were leaving early for Utah.  So it was extra special!

PS..Eric didn't get much...he wanted money for his Mustang. I did get him two ties, some good smelly spray and slippers.

Christmas Fun, Memories and Traditions!

Decorating the tree! 

Cooper was a big help!  We purposely didn't put very many bulbs at the bottom of the tree..within a couple of weeks...there were NO bulbs half way down the tree. The joys of a one year old.

Kelseyville Light Parade!

One of my favorite new traditions.  This was our 3rd year going.  I love watching the parade, and enjoying some hot coco!  Pictures were taken by Brooklyn herself.

Santa Claus came to town...

Can't go without seeing Santa Claus..and he always shows up to our ward Christmas dinner...so nice!

Once he walked in, Easton whispered in my ear, "That is Red!"  His name is Red. He is in our ward.  He still believes though.  They all do..somewhat. Brooklyn has been asking questions.  Cooper liked Santa and then Santa gave him a candy cane and then he didn't care about Santa anymore.

 Eric, Cooper, Jake and Hailey.  Cooper and Hailey are 4 months apart.  And these dads already have them dating.  Hopefully they will be little friends!

David Archuleta's Christmas Concert!

I was excited to see that David was coming to our local art center on his Christmas Tour.  The tickets were only $30 each...not too bad for a concert.  We took Brooklyn and Easton, Cooper stayed home with a sitter and slept!  It started late, well at least to me. 8:00.  He had an opener which was ok.  And then David came on at 8:30.  He sang a few fun Christmas faster songs and then a few of his pop hits.  After intermission, he sang all slow Christmas songs like Holy Night. They were beautiful.  Brooklyn enjoyed the first half, especially when he sang "Crush."  She got sleepy after intermission. Easton fell asleep after the 2nd song..no kidding.  Should have left him home with Cooper too. It was a fun night. I am glad I went at least!

Candy Trains!

We can't have Christmas without making Candy Trains...Brooklyn and Easton will make sure of that. They kept asking for weeks when the 18th was so they could make trains.  Jimmy, Victoria and their boys came down for dinner and to make trains. It was a fun night.  The kids always love this tradition!

Memories!

On the Redford side, every person writes a memory each year. It can be a memory from that year or past years.  And then Rod and Jo put them all together for us.  So we have a collection of years with all the Redford family memories. It is a great tradition!  It's our version of family history...done year by year...little by little.  Some day they will be treasures and fun to read for our grandchildren!  I love reading the memories..it's fun to get to know little things about everyone.  Here are our memories this year...

Happy Holidays From The Redfords!

Jon & Traci's Visit!

Jon & Tracie came down for Thanksgiving weekend to visit!  We were so excited to have them come and spend time with us.  We didn't take a lot of picture..which I am sad about.  But we did take a few...at least we have proof they were here! They have two boys, Carter who is 2 and Xander who is around 8 months.  Cooper and Xander had a great time playing together. Cooper actually started to play with his toys, once he say Xander doing it.

The weekend..

They arrived early Thanksgiving day, we hung out, talked, Eric and Jon worked in the shop and we let the kids play.  We had dinner around 4. It wasn't the typical Thanksgiving meal..it was steak, potatoes, salad, rolls, etc..Eric doesn't like Turkey, stuffing, gravy, etc..so he doesn't like Thanksgiving dinners...so we had what he wanted. Sadly, it didn't feel like Thanksgiving Day at all. We did celebrate Cooper's birthday though.  It was a fun birthday day!

After dinner, we headed to Lakeport and went bowling. We met another family there, it was fun. 

Thursday Night at midnight, Traci and I went to Walmart to do some Black Friday shopping.  Well...it was CRAZY! Usually our Walmart isn't that bad, since we live in no where land.  But with the store staying open and starting the sale at midnight, there were A LOT of people there and everything was gone, since everyone arrived earlier and filled there carts and waited until Midnight to checkout...not fair.  We got a few things, but I would say it wasn't worth the trip and lack of sleep.  It was fun with Traci though.

Friday morning, Traci and I woke up at 7 and went to Santa Rosa to do some real shopping at the mall. It was a lot of fun.  We got some good deals. The guys brought the kids down and met us at Costco.  We then headed to San Fran to go to the Children's Discovery Museum. We forgot our cameras, which made us sad because the view of the Golden Gate from there was amazing.  The museum wasn't so great.  First off..you have to pay $12 for anyone older than 6 months. WHAT...$12 for Cooper!  What a waste of money.  The museum was very out dated and old. It doesn't compare to the other ones I have been to in Salt Lake and San Jose.  They really need to do some updating.  The kids had fun, but the adults were bored and a bit cold because they had a lot of it outside, which is cold in San Fran.  Oh well..we went and we won't go again! Friday night we played games, yes we had to force Eric and Jon to play. But it was fun.

Saturday, we went to a baptism, hung out around the house, Eric and Jon worked in the shop, and then we went to dinner. Low key day.

Sunday, Jon and Traci headed home.  We went to church. Eric got a call during church that Jon and Traci had broken down and needed help.  So they came back, Eric tried to figure out what was wrong with there Suburban.  Monday they took it to the dealer to get fixed.  Jon and Traci headed to San Fran again by themselves to see the sights.  Tuesday they rented a car and headed home. 

It was a crazy end to their trip but we were glad to see them for an extra couple of days...not sure if they felt the same way but it was fun hanging out and getting to know Traci better.

Jon drove back with his friend that Friday and picked up their suburban.  It was a lot of driving for Jon that week..poor guy.

Thanks for visiting..come again soon!

A few random memories...

In the beginning of November, my parents came.  Well my dad came for 1 day...we drove to Sacramento to spend the day with him.  He had to perform a ring ceremony there that night, and then because of the snow had to drive straight home.  But my mom stayed for a week.  (Which was a blessing...I was still sick...it was sooooo nice to have someone here to cook for me and to take care of Cooper!)

We went to the spaghetti factory for lunch and then over to play glow in the dark mini golf.  It was fun and interesting at the same time.  Easton found one lucky token sitting on one of the games and he WON a ton of tickets...refer to the picture below...that was with ONE token. The tickets just kept coming out...

Cooper loves my office!  Well...he loves to make a HUGE mess while mommy works on the computer.  I am lucky if I can even walk into my office without stepping on stuff.  Cooper keeps us busy!

 The kids LOVE fires with daddy!  They have so much fun outside with him.  They try to get me to go out there and sit...but I use Cooper as my excuse...my real reason is the smell...I hate smelling like a fire afterwards.  I don't mind it if we are camping.  I prefer my wood stove in my house...I love to stand by it and stay warm with NO smell!  (The neighbor kids love to hang out by the fire too!)

 My sister-in-law needed a few head shots of the kids for a Christmas Gift for Grandma.  So I took a few outside one day...they are growing up so fast!

 Eric...he has been very busy working on his Mustang.  He spent HOURS sand blasting the bottom.  Looks like he has been working in the mine. I will let him do a post on his car since he knows what he is doing.