Tubing at Mt. Spokane for New Years Eve morning!

Snowball Shootout 2012

It was a totally fun weekend at the HUB!  TheUnited  girls were split into two teams....and both United teams made it to the Semi-Finals on Sunday!  Sadly, both teams lost those games to the Shadow teams....but they played so well and we were so proud of them.  We had 4 games on Saturday, which meant we were out at the HUB from 9:30am until about 5pm!  Then, we had to be out there again on Sunday for their semi-final games at 1pm.  If both teams would have won, we would have had to play each other -- which is always very hard.  So, I guess that was the one positive thing about losing our semi-final games!  Team 1 consisted of all Rik's girls (Smiley, Katie, Sailor, Jenny, Bailey, Skylar, Haylee G., and Taryn).  Team 2 had 2 girls from Rik's team (Audriana, Lily, and Brookly) and 4 girls from Chaz's U12 team (Maddy, Piper, Rachel, and Olivia).  Audriana got to meet and play with these other girls and had a great experience.  She did very well -- making 5 goals in total on Saturday.  She was shooting a lot at goal...more misses than goals, but that is ok....we told her that you can't make the goals if you don't shoot!  Proud of her always.....

Christmas 2012

The highlight of our Christmas morning was when Aunt Kristi saw the picture of Santa framed and up on the wall above Grandma's buffet!  It had a tag on it for Sofia.  The cool thing about this is that Sofia asked Santa for a picture of him when she sat on his lap....and she also wrote him a letter asking for a picture of him.  Can you believe that Santa delivered!!!  We think one of his elf's must have taken it, because he looks a little surprised, doesn't he?  This was a treasure for Sofia and it made her day!  And ours, too!  Thank you, Santa!!!

 Well, as tradition has it, Mom and Aunt Kristi came home with us on Christmas Eve (after being at Mom's for dinner and presents).  Jay goes to Ephrata to be with the Sandbergs, so we just love our tradition of having mom and Kristi spend the night with us -- and they just love waking up Christmas morning with the girls and watching them delight in what Santa has brought them.  Kristi sleeps in with the girls and Mom always chooses to sleep upstairs on the couch with all the pretty tree and xmas lights on (even though we have a bedroom downstairs for her!).  It was about 8pm when we got home from mom's, so the girls put out some eggnog and cookies for Santa, plus some carrots for the reindeer.  They wrote a couple of quick notes for him and headed to bed.  At 10 and 7 you can only imagine the excitement that this night holds for them.  They fell asleep quickly and Mom, Kristi and I had time to sit on the couch and just talk and relax.....what an awesome night!  Martin had been feeling pretty congested and sick since Sunday, so he went straight to bed, too.  The 3 of us girls stayed up for a couple of hours then decided that we had better get to bed because we knew the girls would be up at the crack of dawn (usually before 6am!). 

Christmas morning!  Santa came!  Yahoo!  What joy.....
I love my family and these precious memories that we share together.  I love that Martin and I get to have my mom and sister here with us each year, too.  We wouldn't change a thing.....

 Yup....gifts for Sofia and gifts for Audriana! 

Harry Potter blanket for Audriana!

This is the moment that Sofia first saw the picture of Santa -- actually, Aunt Kristi noticed it up on the wall....Sofia's jaw dropped in amazement.....it was her perfect Christmas moment.

Santa brought both the girls each a Kindle Fire!  With cases and car chargers!  Wowza!  Lucky girls!



I just love this picture of Martin and the girls.  Martin still isn't feeling well, but he does look pretty good in his new Under Armour jacket! 

It was the year of Under Armour fashion for Audriana...new shirt, new warm up pants, new hat, new hair bands,new shorts and new socks! All Under Armour!
Sofia loved her new Nike running shoes, 2 pairs of colored skinny jeans, 2 cool shirts, and a sparkly belt!

 
 After our Nicaraguan chicken dinner (thank you, Martin!), we settled down at the table to play a few games of dominoes!  So fun!  Jay arrived in time for dinner, dessert, coffee and dominos!

One of my favorite parts of the day was getting an awesome foot rub from Martin!  We all just relaxed and enjoyed the time together.  We had a yummy sausage, egg and cheese breakfast casserole for breakfast -- plus some oranges and cinnamon rolls.  Lots of food throughout the day, too!  Brocoli cheese dip, party pride, cookies and goodies, crackers and olive dip.....oh my!  

Christmas Eve 2012!

Christmas Eve.....after a relaxing morning of enjoying coffee on the couch, Martin and I met mom and the girls at Sacred Heart Parish at 2:30pm (the girls had their traditional Dec 23rd sleep over with grandma -- baking cookies, shopping and helping grandma get ready for Christmas).  The girls were both in the children's mass at 3pm and they needed to be early to get ready.  This year Sofia was one of the angels (like last year) in the Christmas Story....Audriana got to read petitions in the mass this year, so she did not participate in the skit.  We were so proud of both of them -- they are so mature and grown up!  

Merry Christmas! 
Our beautiful girls look so grown up....we love you both so much!

Our traditional dinner of chilli on Christmas Eve at mom's house never dissappoints!  It was so good!  Mike joined us for dinner and presents and that was nice because we really don't see him much anymore.  The weather was cold -- a couple of inches of snow on the ground -- just a perfect Christmas Eve! 

Nuetra familia!  Feliz Navidad!