Disney!

We pulled the kids out of school for a day (amazing, they were all too sick to go to school on the same day but all healthy enough to go back to school the following day!) and took them to Disney to play with Luke, Kristin, Connor, and Easton. We all had sooo much fun and the kids had a blast together. My favorite part about these pictures is seeing the kids ham it up for the photos...they got it from their Dads!!

Cinderellas and the step sister

Last week was the annual Daddy-Daughter Dance at EBS (our neighborhood school). Here's the girls right before they left with Dave... and Carmen trying on Ana's shoe but upset that it doesn't fit and she can't go with Dad. :(

Just one of the girls

Carmen's just barely starting to let me put ponytails in her hair and not immediately pulling them out. It's so fun because she has such fine, nappy baby hair that looks crazy without anything in it! Carmen spent some time in Hayden and Ana's hair salon last week and this is how she looked when she came out!!

Elementary Admirers

On Sunday, my mom came up and helped the kids make suckers for Valentines Day. Now that they're all in school and class sizes have risen :(, we had to make about 80 suckers! Took the entire first half of the super bowl!!

Their school celebrated Valentines Day today (Thursday), because of the upcoming 4-day weekend. Needless to say, we've got just as much candy now as Halloween...and I'm the mean mom again, only letting them have one piece a day! (Gotta save those teeth)

This morning as I walked Anamarie into her class, I noticed a huge commotion (yelling, screaming, jumping up and down commotion) from about 15 kids in her classroom who were screaming, "She's here! She's coming!" Anamarie was busy taking off her jacket and hanging up her backpack outside the classroom, so she was oblivious to what was going on. But I was kinda curious, and started looking around for Mrs. Corry (the teacher) and around the courtyard to see who they might be talking about. Well, once Anamarie walked into the room, I knew. The hoopla hit the roof, all the kids started screaming, and Nick (one of Anamarie's "friends"), walked to her and gave her a little puppy dog stuffed animal with a heart on it that said "Puppy Love". He said "This is for you, Ana"--brave as can be! Anamarie, on the other hand, whipped herself around to face me, completely mortified. I had to coax her into saying "thank you", and to help her gain her composure. As I was leaving the classroom, a mom of another boy in her class (who is a neighbor of ours) was walking out at the same time as me. She said, "Carson has a heart-shaped box of chocolates that he bought with his allowance for Ana. He was going to bring it today, but I told him we'd drop it by your house this weekend, if that's okay" At dinner, when Anamarie had to tell Dave (the only boyfriend she's allowed to have) about her day, he smiled and said, "You know, Anamarie, when you win American Idol, you're going to have a lot of admirers. You're going to have to get used to it." Then she was quiet for a few minutes as she soaked that thought in. :)

After school, Hayden had a friend of hers (also named Carson) over for a playdate. Since Hayden's favorite things (the Wii and Sorry Sliders) are gender-neutral, she gets along with both boys and girls equally, so no big deal to have a playdate with a boy, right? :) Well, once we got home, there was a big bear and balloon and chocolates and other candies left on our doorstep for her-- that Carson's mom had dropped by a few minutes earlier. (I was just so glad that they were from Carson and not from another boy that we now had to do some explaining for!)


So, I've decided that either I have super cute girls or boys these days are getting a lot more brazen much earlier. (Probably a little of both)

And lastly... can't have a post without little Carmencita. Her new word is "nuh nee" which means CANDY. Great.

Ketchup

Sheez, I'm WAY behind so I'm just going to squeeze in a ton of pictures here and explain our crazy life over the past month! :) We went to Georgia for two weeks for Christmas and New Years. Tons of family time, tons of fun. We all loved it. Here are a few of our favorite times:


It was sooo freezing cold in Georgia! We had to bundle up everytime we went outside... hats, scarves, mittens, the works! Crazy because there was no snow and hardly any rain. Just cold!




We had two showings of the nativity. One without the cousins on Christmas Eve, and one with everyone on Christmas Day. The only pictures we took (sorry Joey and Aaron!) were from Christmas Eve.


Carmen, the wise-baby, LOVED dressing up. She kept trying to steal Baby Jesus from Mary during the nativity. Anamarie tried to fight back, but Carmen did NOT want Anamarie to hold the baby and let us all hear about it!


Looks like the shepherd is a bit upset about being upstaged by the wisewoman!


Carmen in her jammies Christmas Eve. Da dat (da da) is her favorite toy!


Christmas night, Papa made a huge semi-controlled bonfire and everyone bundled up and had s'mores in the backyard. We're saving this pic for blackmail for Carmen in the future. :)




The Traina Fam in all its glory.


We were SO grateful to be able to meet up with Nana and Papa (Dave's grandparents) and his aunt and uncle, Ginny and Jerry at a McDonalds in the middle of nowhere. (I'm sure the city has a name, but I can't remember it)


Our multi-generational girls pic... and boys pic below






We met up with Dave's BFF and fam for New Years Eve. SO much fun!


Dave, his dad and Jon LOVED being pyros and lighting fireworks-- both controlled on the ground (as pictured) and off the top of moving vehicles (not pictured, but video-ed... hopefully we can put a clip on. You probably had to be there to really understand how funny it all was, but it'd put a smile on your face for sure!)


No description necessary. Just the cutest baby ever.


When we got back to San Diego, it was time for two more cousin-filled days with the Gardiners and Bedells. So much fun!!


We finished up Hayden's all star soccer tournaments (finally!) Here's a fun picture of a girl that's not too happy about being schooled by Hayden. :)

Stranded on a desert island

This week, a part of Anamarie's homework was a story starter-- following up on the question, "If you were stranded on a desert island, what things would you want to have with you?" I LOVED the practicality of her answers. Hopefully you can read her entry!

I would bring wood from a forest so I can bild (build) a house. And fire so I can stay worm (warm). Water so I will not haft to gring (drink) from a drty pond. A friend so Im not lonly (lonely) and!!! (the exclamation marks mean she really means this part) toothpast so I will not have cavitys. Cantls (candles) so I can see when it is nite time. Flowers so it will smial (smell) good in my woud house. And happy.nis. (happiness)

LOVE THAT GIRL! She is gonna be the most humble, practical American Idol winner ever and will spend her money wisely!

This week was also her dance recital. She danced to "Run, Run Rudolph" and said she wasn't nervous at all. :) She said that she was just busy the whole dance trying to find Grandma and Grandpa in the audience! Here she is with her dance teacher:

I'm STILL divying out cookies from the yummy cookie exchange we had on Tuesday night. I can't believe how good all the cookies were...I want ALL the recipes but still want the girls to come back next year and share their secrets again! YUM! Can you tell who won the holiday costume contest? (Unfortunately she took the side ponytail out before this picture, dang it!)

Lastly... YEA!! We take off on Sunday for two weeks in Georgia. Merry Christmas everyone!

Manna from heaven

It rained for the first time in over 6 months on Saturday and the kids were in heaven. It was like they had never seen rain before. Dave let them go out and get soaked in the rain. Look how happy! (except for Alex who seems to have the same blink when you take a picture problem as Papa!)


Happy day! (Kinda...) Yesterday was Carmen's first day of nursery and she loved it. Didn't even look back after she saw all of the toys in the room.



Caught! My dad fell asleep about 10 minutes into our ward's primary program a few weeks back. Dave couldn't resist whipping his phone out for a pic.


Carmen LOVES the baby ice cream cones at McDonalds. She literally stuffs the whole thing into her mouth! Here's proof!

Julian!

Our ward boundaries were changed today (expanded) and the very best part was that we only had 1 hour of church today! Even better than stake conference! So, our little family (plus Sarah, who's basically family anyway) took a roadtrip to Julian for a few hours. We had so much fun candle dipping and making apple cider and going on a hayride and feeding the goats and holding the chickens and mining for gems! We'll definitely go again-- maybe next year in early October when you can pick your own apples. Fun day! And...I am getting that boy's hair cut this week. Promise.

Hey there, Delilah

Yea for me! (not mom) I got a hamster! I saved all my money for a cute little white and red hamster!(that squeaks ALOT.) Thank goodness it's not a family pet. All has been going well, some things funny some not ,like when Delilah pooed and peed ALL over mom, and when Carmen almost killed Delilah by throuing her on the ground, AND when Delilah rolled herself to the stairs and... of course rolled all the way down the stairs.Well, I'm done writing because my fingers hurt. Peace out!
Love Hayden
P.S.
It's awsome having a hamster! You should get one! :)

editors note: Hayden saved up all of her birthday money and allowance for months-- Hamsters are expensive!! So thanks Great Nana and Great Papa, Ginny and Jerry, Grandma and Grandpa W. Lets just cross our fingers that this hamster doesn't end up like many of the others I've owned before... smashed in the garbage compactor, found under my parents' bed in the middle of the night, or assumed to be hibernating for months. :) And, the sweet name is for one of Hayden's favorite songs...and the all kids sing it all in unison. Funny, but I can't wait to post a new post so I can update the song attachment!! :)