Melissa’s Blog

Of course Christmas is always fun with kids. The kids made Santa cookies, red and white striped candy cane cookies. Justin doesn’t believe in Santa anymore and Nikki is not so sure. I didn’t get the video camera out fast enough to see/hear Nikki’s reaction to her electric scooter. She wanted one for so long. It was awesome and when I think about her reaction I will always smile. And Justin’s main gift was the Xbox. How I will miss him asking for an Xbox-NOT!! Nikki made Justin a really pretty frame and put a picture of her and Justin in it. So sweet as Justin saw it he told Nikki he loved it. She also gave him things she was saving up for about a year from treasure boxes and such. Justin gave Nikki two Skylanders and a magic set. Justin has been playing Xbox every opportunity he gets. We also got lots of Legos so have been re-arranging their rooms so we can display them. Justin and Nikki made dad and I awesome photo coasters at school. We love them! Dad got me lots of camera stuff-new version of photoshop elements, camera strap, camera necklace, etc. So on an off roading trip Bret mentioned his jeep looks so wimpy compared to others….so I decided to splurge and surprise him with his new bumper. It was so cool and fun to surprise him, even though it came the day after Christmas. Here are some pics from our day:

The kids had a holiday party @ school. They played Bingo, made scarves, and snowflakes. Also made some snowman out of marshmallows.

And here is our Sanders Christmas card for 2014. We had to use the Jeep, moved it on the greenbelt 🙂 and decided to show all religions. Nikki really wanted us to take a picture and I am so glad she forced us too. I love it!

I am probably out of chronological order but as I remember things….The kids had to do non fiction book reports for school. They both chose Alcatraz. It was so much easier having them do it on the same subject. It was pretty cool as the kiddos had to design a box of cereal based on the book. Justin came up with Prison Bran and Nikki came up with Coco Cuffs. I have a picture of Justin’s hanging in his classroom but still need to take one of Nikki’s box.

Nikki received an A on it but still waiting for Justin’s grade.

We headed up to Big Bear for an off roading trip. We decided to make a weekend out of it. Off roading in the snow was pretty fun. The kids couldn’t wait to get out and play in the snow. The day was great but a little long! There were some huge mud puddles and the kids loved when dad went flying through it all. Mud hit Kate’s roof! You can’t tell from the pic but Kate was extremely dirty.

That night we went out to dinner. There was a magician there that was amazing! It was really fun and we are still in awe of the magic tricks. The next day was snow day. The snow was great! We were able to make snowmen and lots of sledding. The kids had a blast and we had a blast watching them. It was a little icey so I ended up going down the hill on my butt! Here are some pics:

Not sure how I can catch up but I am going to try.

The kids had crazy hat day at school. We made Hershey kisses hats out of funnels:

We went to Northern CA for a wedding the weekend before Thanksgiving. Bret was in Bob’s wedding and it was the kids first wedding ever. Bret had to get to Gilroy before us so he flew. I grabbed the kids out of school early and we did the long drive, The kids were awesome in the car. Seeing the kids all dressed up was great! They looked awesome. There were only 2 single boys at the wedding so Justin caught the garter, it was hilarious. The kids had fun dancing. Nikki didn’t want to leave the wedding as she was having so much fun dancing.

We spent about 5 days in Northern CA. Bret could only stay for the weekend. We did a lot in the few days. We went to the Jelly Belly factory. We all thought that was cool. We went to San Francisco but the day we went it was so unbelievably crowded. The next day we figured out how to avoid crowds and have fun. We rode the cable cars, went to the fortune cookie factory, went to the shopping center and the kids thought it was so cool to go up/down the curved escalators. We went to Foster City and looked around. We took a walk to the park we used to take Tracey too. It was cool to see our old house.

For the kids 9th birthday we decided to give them Disney passes. We finally made it to Disney three weeks after their bday. We got there when it first opened and got on lots of rides. Can’t believe the kiddos are 9 and growing up so super fast. I took a few pics but haven’t had much of a chance to edit. Here is a preview of their 9 year old pics:

Apple Picking 2014…..so excited we were able to go apple picking this year. We had a great time, the weather was beautiful, the apples were $3.00/lb, and we made cider. We also ate some yummy apple cider donuts!!

Justin decided to start baseball. I am glad he is getting back into a team sport. He seems to really love it, plus he looks so handsome in his uniform. His team name is Sharks.

Soccer has started for Nikki. She loves it so much. So far the season has gotten off to a slow start as we have lost the first two games. As long as she has fun thats all that matters.

Nikki was so excited as you can tell from the pictures to start school but Justin was just so so. Nikki got Mrs. Skelley and Justin got Mrs. Valencia. We are all very happy with who they got for teachers. Here are some pics from the first day:

Both came out of school so happy, it was great!

And just to catch up a little on the blog…Nikki got her one year trophy from gymnastics.

We did go to open gym at gymnastics a few times this summer. Nikki can do a bridge now and has been practicing hand stands over and over. Here are a few pics:

Tori came to visit this summer. The kids loved being with her. We joked that she is the favorite cousin now. The kids swam with her and we took her down to Balboa to hang out.

We went to Crestline for a night with friends. It was so beautiful up there, so much that it made me want a cabin too. After seeing the maintenance though of a cabin I realized probably not a great investment. We went for a great walk around the lake. Here are some pics:

What else do you do on 7/11, go to 7/11 for a free slurpee…..

Justin’s other top front tooth fell out (7/15/14). It is very exciting as he is a vampire now. He looks adorable. The tooth fairy brought him some glittery money.

Yesterday we ended up at Tewinkle Park with some friends. The kids had fun but it was a little hot and we had some hungry kids. I did bring my camera though and captured a few cute pics:

It was a great park to take pictures and I can’t believe how big my babies are! The kids went swimming for hours then Nikki had her friend Ava sleepover. I think the girls went to bed around 11:00 and were up bright and early around 6:00. Oh well the fun of summer…….

Over Bret’s birthday we had a little camping theme. We planned a little scavenger hunt, slept in the tent (dad slept in the house and snuck into the tent early in the morning). It was his birthday so he got to sleep in the house plus he had to do some work. We ate smores and just had fun together.

Since the tent was set up the kiddos had their friends Matthew, Mason, and Mia over for a sleepover. They all slept in the tent, totally cute. They were up late but so cute to see them together. We got some great laughs at them playing Twister.

Yeah it is finally summer. School got out so late this year. I can’t believe the kids will be third graders. Both had such great years, did well in school, had great teachers, made great friends, etc.

From the pics one kid is happy for summer and the other is not. Nikki loves school so much. We have had 2 days of summer break and she hasn’t mentioned missing school yet…

Kiddos had crazy sock and sun glass day at school. It was cute but there was not a lot of participation. Justin didn’t want to wear sun glasses but we found him some bright socks.

Today Nikki got to go on a trail horse back ride to celebrate summer. She went with her friend, Grace. Nikki was so nervous but ended up having a wonderful time. Here are some pics from the day (the 1st pic shows how nervous Nikki was):

I was babysitting Shelby so she came with us. Justin decided not to do the horse back riding instead he is going to do video game thing. So him and I took Shelby on the train while Nikki rode the horse.

Justin’s bowling league just ended for the summer. Finally I remembered to bring my camera. Justin got a medal at the end. There was also a little pizza party at the end.