Christmas Day

The night before Christmas we were at my parents for the Annual Pidgeon Family Skype call & Gift exchange. It is always complicated doing a gift exchange with over the internet. A large chunk of the Pidgeon Family is gathered together and then there is a laptop connected with us, and a laptop connected with my Uncle Tim & his family in Georgia. Lots of fun being able to see everyone, but confusing just the same.

After the call we headed back to our house. We tracked Santa on the TV (He was over Jamaica). Justin & Paige sprinkled the reindeer food on our front lawn. We put out cookies & milk (With our new Santa plate & glass set from my grandma) and tucked Paige into bed. We told her she needed to climb into bed with us when she woke up and I needed to get up and get things ready before she could get out.

At 7am she came into our bed. We were hoping to get a few more minutes of sleep, but that is a lot to expect from an excited 3 year old. I came out, turned on all the lights and got the video camera ready.

I called for her and started recording. We checked the cookie plate first which was near our fireplace. Santa had only eaten 3 of the 5 cookies so she was a little upset about that. Then we went to the tree (In our dining room) and she saw the big ride on car with the stockings in it. She knew that car was in our garage under a blanket as she had mentioned to me last week so the Glide bike we won was now the "Santa" present. She was looking at the stockings and the car and she whispered that she liked it. When we told her to see what Santa had brought, she just got upset that he did not bring her the Tinkerbell lantern she asked for.

We got her over that and she opened her stocking stuffers and a few gifts we had from friends & family here. Justin took her to ride on her new car but the battery only lasted a couple of minutes (We had not fully charged it the night before). He tried to get her to ride the bike, but she wanted nothing to do with that bike.

She played with some of her new stuff and we headed to my parent's house. We had some yummy breakfast pizza and apple sauce loaf (Christmas traditions). Then we settled into my parents living room and started the process of opening gifts (takes a few hours).

Paige of course wanted to play with everything she opened and got a little overwhelmed. We got so many things we wanted & needed and felt so blessed by our family this year. It was also fun to give my sisters and mom some things Paige & I made for them at color me mine. Chelsie & Mikaila both got nice, hand painted mugs with Paige's handprint on them. By hand painted I mean by a 3 year old too! And mom got a cookie plate that says "Nanas never run out of hugs, kisses or cookies."

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and enjoying our gifts in PJ"s. We also had some of our favorite foods (Cheese ball, meatballs, spinach dip and veggies) and my mom made something called Vegetable Pizza which could be my next potluck entree. We played a game of Yahtzee while Paige was napping. It was just how Christmas should be.

When we got home, we played with almost everything Paige got for Christmas and put away a few things too. My parents got her some great games like "Don't break the ice", "Don't spill the beans", "Ants in your pants" and "HiHo Cherrios". We are loving this new age and it will be fun to have game nights now.

And Justin got me the 3 bin laundry sorter I really wanted. There were a lot of great presents, but that one will make my life so much easier so it made me really happy.

Huffman Family Christmas Eve

As has become tradition, we headed to Justin's old house (Currently where his brother Dan lives) for Christmas Eve Day. Since Paige, Justin & I were all sick (I still need to write a catch up post on that) the weekend before, we did not make it down for our niece Teagan's 1st b-day party or our planned get together with our Friends Evan/Danielle and their 2 year old Maelee.

So we left a little early and stopped by their house when we got there. Unfortunately (for us only) Evan was working so we did not get to see the whole family. Maelee showed us their backyard where they have their chickens (one was recently attacked by a raccoon or something).
The we opened up presents and gave them ours.



We played for a few minutes and then we headed over to May ave for some fun with family. There were two special things about this years get together. Justin's dad & his wife Caroline were able to join us from Oregon/Alaska which is the first time since I have known Justin. I know it was nice for Paige to see her Grandpa. And Justin's oldest brother, Stan, was also there and was really engaging with the family. He has been battling a lot of demons since his mom died (When I really started becoming part of their family) and hasn't spent a lot of Christmases with us. I know that meant a lot to all of us, but most of all to his two kids Tyler & Joseph.

Michelle & Dan served a nice Prime Rib, and all of the fixings to go along with it. They always do a great job with the food and I know it is a lot of work, so it is appreciated.

Paige enjoyed hanging out with all of her cousins (Especially Alyssa). We opened presents and just had a great day of family time and conversations. And Justin's Grandma made Justin his favorite Pickled Green Beans and me her homemade pickles. We could not ask for better gifts from her and are reminded that we really need to schedule a pickling day so we can learn her techniques and carry on this tradition throughout the generations.

The only thing that could have made the day better is if our oldest nephew Keith had joined us. We are not really sure why, but he did not make it down and we were really sad about it. Hopefully next year we will be back to normal.

Paige * Aylssa hanging out

The boys were all playing around with Dan's Rock Crawler

Justin & His Grandma Rose

Me & Teagan

Getting Ready to open presents

Teagan loved the vanilla yogurt raisins we gave her!

Christmas Video

We woke up on Christmas morning and recorded Paige checking out what Santa brought. This is the funny video we got. The whole post is coming next.

Paige's 3 year old Check-up

Paige had her 3 year old check-up today.

She is 37 5/8 inches Tall (75th %)
33 lbs (50th %)

The Dr is still estimating that she will be around 5'5" if she grows at this rate, but she thinks she may have a late growth spurt. Especially after explaining that Paige is almost an inch taller than Mikaila was at 4 years old and now Mikaila is almost as tall as me. Time will tell.

She is doing everything she is supposed to be doing and answered all of the Dr's questions.

She had her eyes and hearing tested as well and she did great!

Also, the Dr had me take her to get some blood drawn to test for lead. Mostly because Justin works in construction. She was such a champ- Didn't shed a single tear or even cry out.

Paige at 3 Years

Here are some of the things she is doing now.

She has become a very loud backseat driver: I often hear the following:
"Mom- You need to catch up to those cars" (I asked which ones) "All of them, your car is the fastest"
"Mom- Why aren't you going?- The light is Green"

She loves to play "Go Fish" but doesn't fully understand the concept of the game yet.

Quote while decorating the tree "Mom- I love decorating the tree with you- It makes me feel so grown up"

According to Paige "All princesses shouldn't be scared", Why you ask? Because their papa's get rid of the monsters and apparently, so does Aunt Chelsie.

She enjoyed Hawaii so much that she pretty much tells us she is going back there every day. But often she is going on a scooter with her daddy. She doesn't understand that you can only go by plane or boat.

We went to the Dr for her flu shot. She was ready for a shot in her arm, and when the Dr decided that she should get the mist, she was upset. Mostly because she wanted a band aid. The Dr. gave her one and she insisted that we put it on her nose. That's where she got her shot she said.

She is starting to be potty trained- Will hopefully finish that soon.

She loves to make mail and put in envelopes. That is funny because I used to make mail boxes out of paper and then make mail to put in them.

That's all I can think of right now. I will try to remember to add to this as she says funny things.

Santa Without Tears!

This year, she went to Santa, sat on his lap, talked to him and took a picture with NO TEARS!

Christmas Cookies

I decided that I should try this baking with Paige thing again. This time I bought some refrigerated sugar cookie dough to help make less of a mess. We rolled it out and cut out shapes. However, I could not find my Xmas cookie cutters at first. We made some hearts, butterflies and little men. I did find a snowman and tree cutter finally so we made some of those.

While I was baking the cookies, we ate lunch- which helped take her mind off of the cookies for a minute. Then, while the cookies were cooling- I was making the icing. And She was dumping out the jar of sprinkles we just bought on a plate and the table. I finally finished the icing and we decorated them. She must have eaten 5 cookies or more because she kept sneaking them.

We had a good time, but my dining room was a mess when we were done.

Paige's 1st REAL Dentist Visit

We have actually been taking Paige to the Dentist every six months since sometime after she turned 1. But all of those visits have involved her laying in my lap, the dentist looking and counting her teeth. No cleanings.

We knew that this visit was going to be a big one. The dentist had told us to buy one of those electric spin brushes for kids to prepare her for the sound. And She also recommended a Dora goes to the Dentist book. She was ready!

They took her in, and actually did ex-rays. She did pretty good, but couldn't do the ones in the back- her mouth was just a little too small. But she listen well and she stayed still- which was a big deal.

Then they took her to a chair, cleaned her teeth, flossed and had a fluoride treatment. The Dentist came over, looked at her teeth and she was done. I was so proud of how well she did. They think that next time I may not even need to come back with her.

Christmas Tree Lane

Sun-Maid had their 98th Annual Meeting on December 4th. Every year, we are invited to come and work and attend. But this is the first year I have come. We went up on Friday Afternoon, checked into a hotel. I am pretty sure I stayed at that hotel for Summit West back in 1993 or 1994.

After checking in, I met up with my other co-workers and we went to Christmas Tree Lane. It is a street about 3 miles long in Fresno. The city decorates the huge trees that line the street, and the rest of the gorgeous houses go all out. Most nights in December you can "drive" down the street one way with your windows down to listed to the music and enjoy the lights. But two nights a year, they close the street to car traffic. You take a bus to the start and walk back to your car. It was beautiful.

After the walk, we went to a restaurant called Wasabi- Off the hook. It was a modernly decorated Japanese restaurant. The food was good and we had a great time.

The next morning, we had to be up and ready by 7am (On a Saturday!). We had breakfast and headed over to the convention hall. There were some great displays and food from around the world with Raisins in it. I was working in the growers store and became the "Basket lady" but it was fun. We went to the meeting (Which is for our growers. We are a Co-Op of Raisin Growers- Not a corporation), then had lunch. I worked in the store for a couple more hours and headed home.

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we decided we should get our Christmas Tree. The weekends in December were booking up quickly and we weren't sure when we would be able to get one. Plus, we needed a little Christmas around our house.

But it rained all Saturday so we had to move our photo shoot for Paige's birthday to Sunday and we didn't feel like tree shopping in the rain either. On Sunday, Justin was taking our nephews back to Boulder Creek (The mountains). I was taking Paige for her pictures. There is a great Christmas Tree farm there, so I gave Justin a $50 budget, told him I did not want a tree that was too sparse and let him pick-out the tree on his own.

When he got home, I was so excited to see my tree and he brings out 3 trees. I thought that was odd since one usually costs between $30-$50, until I looked at them and realized that they were quite small. They reminded me of the Charlie Brown Tree. Turns out he had cut them down himself from somewhere in the mountains and had not spent any $.

At first I was pretty upset. I had to go to Walgreens to buy Paige a little tree for her room since she wanted one, and calm down a bit. The Christmas Tree is so important to me, and I have a lot of ornaments. I came home, and we decorated the tree the best we could. Only one string of lights, and most of the ornaments have to be hung near the trunk. I picked out my favorite ornaments. Paige helped me some.

Ultimately, the tree is not what I pictured in my head, but it was free. And these days, free is good. I am grateful that he was trying to save us money. Hopefully next year, we can afford to have me pick out the tree again.

Thanksgiving

As has been our tradition since Justin's Grandfather passed away 5 years ago, we went to Auburn to have Thanksgiving with Grandma's sister and her family, along with ours. This year, we decided to rent a hotel room the night before and the night of Thanksgiving, instead of driving 2+ hours there and back the same day.

We have our nephews (We missed Keith this year) so we rented a 2 bedroom suite at the Residence Inn in Roseville (About 15 minutes from Mingas house). We rented it because it had a full kitchen and would allow me to bake my pies there, and also because we would all be together in the same year.

When we checked in, the front desk clerk tried to tell me that they had overbooked the 2 bedroom suites (And made it seem like it was my fault) and asked if we would take 2 1-bedroom suites instead. I told her that I had 3 children with me and that would not work. She asked if I could take a handicap suite (One bathroom doesn't have a tub- just a wheelchair accessible shower).

We checked in and as I get to our room, I notice that there is no oven. I go back out and find out that it is because of the handicap room. But they offer to let me use their kitchen in the lobby.

The first night, we had Justin's cousin Kevin, his girlfriend Michelle and their combined 3 kids over for dinner. It was great having a little apartment and being able to have company. Joseph was really sick and he was able to just rest in his room with the door closed. It was the first time we had met Michelle and she was really nice. She also had a daughter, Shelby, who is also three. She was adorable.

After they left, Paige & I tested out the pool, which was almost as hot as a hot tub. The hot tub was actually colder. It was awesome. Tyler joined us, and Justin took Paige back to the room and put her down. We bought her a "ready bed" and actually had it set-up in the large closet again (Like Hawaii).

After swimming, I got dressed, grabbed all my stuff and headed to the lobby. I baked my pumpkin pies and hung out in the lobby for a while. Unfortunately, their Internet did not work that well- but at least there was TV.

I went back, talked with my nephews and settled in for the night. Paige was up around 3am and crawled into bed with us. She was itchy and did not sleep that well. At around 5 or so , I stood up and bounced her for a few minutes. She finally fell back asleep and we all slept until around 7:30 or 8am.

We went for another swim in the morning. Then I made my sweet potato casserole and we headed over to Mingas. We had a great time hanging out with all of the family. Justin's Brother Dan, his wife Michelle, and their almost 1 year old Teagan came a little later. Dan was BBQ'ng a turkey in the back of his truck. Teagan is getting so big and is just adorable. We had so much food. One of my favorites was the Jalapeno poppers that Kevin made.

After dinner, the kids played some more. They had a football game in the dark. We took our family picture (Hopefully the Parada's will send a copy). Then we headed back to our hotel, where I took a final dip in the pool.

Paige crawled into bed with us again at 3am but this time she slept with us until 8am. We checked out around 11am and headed home.

Overall- we had a great visit. I think we will probably stay in the hotel in years going forward (Assuming we can afford to). It really made things a lot easier.

Towards the end of the night, some of the kids needed some quiet reading time- that ended up getting interrupted by the smaller kids.

Chris and his daughter Daphne

My adorable niece Teagan.

Justin, with his Grandma Rose (Right) and her sister Adeline (left)

Dan- Cooking turkey in the back of his truck.

Night time football game

Paige's 3rd Birthday

This year we decided to keep the party a little more low key than we had in previous years. Her birthday fell on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I decided to take the whole week off and we planned the party for her actual party. She had 4 friends come (Audrey-5, Faith-4, Zane-2, and Josie- 1). It was a perfect #.

The theme this year was a bug party. When the kids showed up, they all played for a little while and warmed up to each other. Then we moved them into the dining room. We had covered one of the walls with paper and gave them some crayons. They had a great time drawing different things.

After they were done drawing, the each receiving a small plastic bug catcher with their names on it and a magnifying glass. We had an indoor scavenger hunt. They had to find 2 plastic butterflies and 4 plastic spiders. Once they found their bugs, they got to pick out a few bug tattoo's.

Then we had some food. I served: Ants on a log, some small sandwiches in the shape of a flower, raisins, cheez-its and some pickles/olives. For dessert, instead of a cake- we had "Make your own Bug Garden". Each kid got a small plastic cup with chocolate pudding. Then they got to put some dirt (Crushed oreos) and some "realistic" gummy bugs and sour gummy worms on top.

They all seemed to have a lot of fun. I am looking forward to smaller parties going forward.







In the evening, Justin brought our nephews Tyler & Joseph home since they were coming to Thanksgiving with us. We had dinner and cup-cakes. Our neighbors, Tim & Paula came over with a present for Paige and enjoyed the cup-cakes with us.