Bathtime without water...in clothes...

I came upon this sight by chance... Jason got fun bathtime crayons from Aunt Michelle.  Who says you need to actually be bathing to use them, right?

Visit From the McCreas - Day 2

The 29th was still pretty dull and dreary.  I forgot to mention earlier that Garrett totally had the stomach flu when they got here, which is why there aren't many pics of him.  He was busy watching his new movie from the McCrea's "How to Train Your Dragon," and lying in my room in misery.  Poor little buddy.
I had a great time coloring with Joscelyn.  We made this masterpiece together.  We were quite proud of ourselves.

The highlight of the 29th was when Kevin got home early from work, and I was able to take the McCreas on a drive to La Jolla.  I think La Jolla is absolutely beautiful.  We were able to stop at the temple, and right next to the temple is a shopping center that has Trader Joe's so we were able to stop there and get some gluten-free foods for Ant and my kids. 

The rest of the day we watched "good cable" (Ant's name for non-basic cable).  It was fun to catch up on totally shallow, fun shows like "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and "Millionaire Matchmaker."

Gavin was super cute and happy just chillin' with the rest of us. 

This was, of course, quite the funny sight.  Garrett always goes after everyone's Cokes.  :)

And, of course, Ant got some good snuggle time in with her little buddies.

Visit From the McCreas

 We were very excited to find out earlier in the year that Ant Larraine, Kayli and her two kids Joscelyn and Gavin, were coming to San Diego for their vacation.  They got here late on the 27th, and they sure were a sight for sore eyes.  The first couple days they were here were kind of overcast and rainy, so we just chilled at home and played and our kids got to know this other part of their family a little better. 

Gavin and Jason played very well together.  It was nice to see Jason playing with another little kid since Garrett and Caiti don't give him the time of day.

 Caiti loved Ant Larraine.  Ant just had the magic touch and made Caiti feel happy.

 Gavin and Joscelyn looked super cute trying on Caiti's hats.  I loved having a flower pot and a princess in my living room.

On the 28th, I was lucky enough to get a VERY needed haircut from my favorite hairstylist, Kayli.  I felt pretty lucky.  She did such a good job. 

Christmas 2010

So, coincidentally, not only was Kevin on duty on Thanksgiving, but he was on duty on Christmas as well.  So, we ended up having our Christmas Eve on the 23rd, and Santa brought the presents a day early so that we could celebrate Christmas on the 24th. 

Michelle was nice and did respite for Kevin and I so that Kevin could get his Christmas shopping for the kids done.  He had gone earlier and gotten me a great sweater and new jeans which, of course, I opened early cause I'm not very good at waiting.  We were glad to have Michelle there the rest of the evening to celebrate Christmas Eve with us.  We made a ham for our Christmas Eve dinner...which burned...dang it!  I never claimed to be a good cook.  Luckily I had a frozen cheesecake for dessert, so at least we didn't ruin that. I was too lazy to make the tater-tot casserole I had planned for our dinner, but that ended up making a great Christmas breakfast instead.  :) 

A Roach family tradition is to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, so we watched that for our Christmas Eve tradition.  Then we all opened a pair of pajamas before bedtime.  :)  After the kids went to bed, Santa stopped by and left a bunch of presents.  Thanks Santa!

We had a great time on our Christmas morning (the 24th).  We loved watching the kids open their presents.  They were very excited about all of their gifts which made me happy because I never really know what to give Garrett and he liked everything he got, and I never know if my kids will even get what is going on.  I felt like they all understood that it was a fun holiday and that the presents were for them.

We had a nice visit from the new Military Relations missionaries.  They brought by cookies.  Yummy.  It was a little embarrassing because our house definitely looked like we had just opened tons of presents. 
That night we rented Salt with Angela Jolie and just had a chill evening.  I love my family and I'm grateful for all the wonderful gifts we were given and able to give.
Most importantly, of course, I'm grateful for the reason we even celebrate Christmas.  The gift of the Savior is a better gift than any other.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Fall Pictures...at Christmastime.

Around Halloween, Garrett and Caiti got these adorable pictures taken at school.  I am just now posting them because Michelle gave me a couple-day early Christmas present of a wonderful printer/scanner.  I'm so glad.  What a fabulous sister.

Sitting on Santa's Lap

 Today, out of the blue, literally, I found this picture from 2006 of the first time either Garrett or Caiti met Santa.  This is a funny memory for me.  We were in Michigan visiting my sister Jennifer's family, and Santa was at the Ford Museum.  It was the first of many hillarious family pictures.

 After seeing Dora and Diego and being better introduced to Santa through their Christmas specials, these two did a whole lot better when they saw Santa this year at the Children's Christmas Party for Kevin's ship. 

Security Blankie

Jason just rediscovered his favorite blankie.  We originally bought it back when we had that fire in our old house and had to stay in a hotel for 3 weeks.  We thought Garrett would like it.  Garrett was about the same age then as Jason is now. 
Anyway, Jason's super into cars, and I got this blankie out for him the other day.  He totally smiled and had to examine all the vehicles on the blankie.  He has since carried it around with him almost everywhere.  It's so cute.

Garrett's Favorite Yoga Pose

They now make Yoga undies intead of Yoga pants...yeah...

Garrett watching Grandpa's Art Instructional Video

Jason's Ornament

So, since I realized Jason isn't represented at all on our tree, I decided to look up Christmas crafts and see how we could change that.  I found a fun reindeer ornament made using his hand prints and footprints.  This website also had tons of other fun Christmas crafts for kids.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/

Sentimental Value

For one of my bridal showers, when Kevin and I were engaged, everyone was supposed to bring an ornament along with their gift since it was almost Christmas, and we had absolutely no decorations.  These gingerbread men are my favorite.  My mom let me go with her to choose the ornaments, and I chose them to be Kevin and me. 

 

 We used this ornament of the Nauvoo temple as the cake topper at our wedding reception.  Jennifer did such a great job on our beautiful cake.  I was so happy with it and thought it was the best wedding cake ever.

We got married in 2002.  This ornament was from our first Christmas together.

In January 2004, Garrett was born.  We were given a couple of these ornaments that year..."Baby's First Christmas."  Funny, how he's the only baby who got an ornament for his first Christmas.  Kind of like when you do a great job on the first baby's baby book, and then sort of fill in the others.

This is the CUTEST ornament ever.  Garrett made it at school last year in kindergarten...I'm sure with lots of help.  The beard is made from a cutout of his hand.

I love this sweet ornament Caiti made in her preschool class last year.  Of course they would take her picture the day we woke up late. I didn't do her hair and sent her to school in her pajama shirt and hoped they wouldn't notice.  Funny how that works.  I had a similar experience in 3rd grade when I wore my Garfield night shirt tucked in jeans cause I thought it was cool, and that was the day our teacher took our picture for our ornaments for our mommys. 
Hmmm...doing this makes me realize that I really don't have any ornaments to celebrate my cute little Jason.  We're going to have to fix that little situation!

Getting Ready for Christmas

So I knew Kevin would be watching football all night on Sunday night, so we decided it was time to get out the decorations and start decking the halls.  This was my favorite sight of the whole night.  Garrett found the Christmas tree box.

 After I got the tree all put together, I let my sexy husband put up the lights.  Hooray for helpers.

 Caiti had just woken up from a nap.  Usually that means an ornery little girl, but she was so happy because her favorite tree was back.

 She grabbed a pile of the ornament balls and threw them on the tree.  Such a good helper.

 Next we put the sign I made at Enrichment on the door.  I was so proud of my homemade craftiness. 

 

Jason decided it was his turn to help, so he watched me put that up and then supportively sat on the chair by the door while I put up the outside decorations.

 I'm so happy to have this gigantic wreath and the fun Santa and Snow Man signs for outside.  We snatched them right up at Jerri Lynn's yard sale a couple years ago because she has great taste and we wanted our house to look sort of cute compared to hers.  I just need to sneak out and put a nail in the side of the house when no one can see so we can actually hang up our pretty wreath.

These Snow Men are a favorite at our house.  I got Kevin the Sailor Snowman our first Christmas in the Navy.  I got him the Colts Family last Christmas.  The other Snowman was from a beautiful lady in our ward who let Garrett and Caiti meet her horsies.

These Snowmen also have special meaning.  The Baker Snowman was Kevin's present to me our first year of marriage.  I have cherished it ever since.  Of course, I made that sock snowman.  Funny, I only have one of them considering how many I have made over the years, but that's okay.  I like it anyway.

 Caiti adored all the decorations and spent the rest of the evening with her new best friend, Mr. Christmas tree.

 Jason even joined in the admiring, although I think he was noticing the Spongebob and Diego ornmanents more than the actual tree.

 Such a sweetie pie.

...now, 2 days later...this is what my tree looks like.  Inevitable, I know, to have the half-decorated tree, but that just tells you how much it is loved.  (Of course there is a hint about who undecorated the bottom half for me.)