there was this one time...

christmas

christmas eve play at church, E and I were both angels :)
i need to get more pics from my SIL, as this was such a special play for us... our whole family participated. kira was mary and chris was one of the wise men and the boys were shepards.
christmas morning:

my handmade gift from my husband- so sweet :)

he and cam went all around town taking polaroid pics of trees. one of my favorite things.

then it was off to grammies and grampies across the street for christmas morning with them
kira and her cousin. my SIL and her family were here for the week. such a special time with them!

cam had such a cute little quirk this year while opening presents. he'd open then cover them up right away.



then back home for a little rest,then back to grammies for the whole family christmas together.
claiming to be camera shy:

but proving otherwise a bit later:

she got use to the present thing very quickly :)

then it was time for family entertainment :)

(k17 flashback auts and amihan!)


kk stoked to have the 5 golden rings part :)

next morning, the girls went out to see benjamin button and chris set up some pics. looooove these of these 2! they are 3 years apart but were total buds the whole trip.


and a few of my favorite things- my husband and ginko leaves :)

happy new year blog land! i cannot believe it will be 2009 tomorrow.

merry christmas from the waters

we didn't send christmas cards out this year due to my low tolerance of stress levels, i did manage to whip this up in photoshop just now thanks to kira's swift decision making skills. every single card WE received was just amazing. thank you so much for sharing your families with us. lovely. we wish you a merry christmas and a wonderful new year!

snip snip

chris got a little happy with the scissors, elsie didn't seem to mind:)

making stuff

the kids and i got a bee in our bonnets last night and made 5 of these puppies! so fun, and so gratifying to use up all those ribbons :)

tonight, we tackle on the teacher presents! :)
and here are a few more from the dodger day... elsie waiting in the car before we got there :)

dad has hopes of her playing ball :)

and me with  my favorite ball player :)

oh! also added my next 7 pages for my december daily book over here... just trying to condense blog space :)

december happenings

here's what we've been up to the last few weeks:
elsie's hair is getting long and she's decided that she doesn't like haircuts anymore so she will grow it out but wear it up everyday. (yeah right)

she's discovered a new love for chicken teriyaki and eating with chopsticks.

kira's cheerleading squad performed at a local christmas parade.

cam went to outdoor science camp for a week..a big event in the 5th grade.

els and her good friend at a playdate at the americana.

elsie had her first dance recital. note that she didn't have her hair up and refused to let me touch it.

elsie's recital was held at caleb's old preschool, where elsie will also go in sept and  which also happens to be where chris and i became mr and mrs waters :)

i thought it was so funny that her dance teacher made such a big deal about us bringing flowers for our dancers... i knew E wouldn't care, she dug her balloon much more :)

and this should be a post on it's own.. but thanks to friends, we were able to spend an afternoon at dodger stadium. SO amazing!!!

if K was in this shot, i would have contemplated christmas cards... although i made up my mind in early december that im not sending any out. so nice not have to stress about that!

i wish i could have captured how giddy excited HE was to be here :)

we've got another few more weeks planned with friends and family coming in.. just trying to go with the flow and not stress... i dont even have my shopping done  and i am so okay with it all :) i have even kept up with my december daily book. which is just amazing that i've stuck with it this far :)

december daily journal days 4-9

im so proud of myself for making it into week 2 of the journal, LOL.
i added the white packaging behind so you can see the writing on the transparency, it's not there IRL.





front of 9

back of 9

happy birthday chris

this man is so busy i don't know how he does it. he works like a madman but still has time to come to all of his kid's games and be their loudest cheerleader :) this year he's been to 7 countries for work and one to cheer me along as i taught in italy. in a way it was strange to see him with all that free time on his hands in italy, as he hardly ever has free time. and as our year comes to and end, that would be my wish for him. more free time, more sleep. :)
here he is shooting a wedding with me

and surprisingly having some downtime in yosemite, playing golf

in new zealand (gosh this seems so long ago, but he went here twice this year)

in italy

in london:

and home. which i believe is his most favorite spot in the world :)

we love you!!!

this week

the boys were on a half day schedule this week (parent conferences, i can brag and say they got awesome reports, as this is my blog and i can do that) :) we were spoiled with beautiful weather and got together with some of our favorite friends for both mommy and elsie- brooke and kili! the mommies had to have a coffee stop before we took on the park!

we love the gingerbread at starbucks! :)

there was an older girl at the park who did this (els did not see) and i told brooke, elsie will be in that same spot later. sand, dirt... her element :)

these puppies needed a good soak later

the girls adore cameron!

isn't she lovely!

and last time my mom was in town, she dropped off a bag of little goodies for the kids to open each day.. they've been loving it. reminds me of when she did that for me when i was little, awww. love you mom! (kira wasn't feeling camera ready but at least you get to see her fancy nails she painted)

and yesterday i picked up the best cookies from trader joes! dark chocolate covered shortbread. holy cow. i told the kids they couldn't eat them till i finished my KI project and took pics. how do i know they won't last thru the weekend?? :)

december projects

for the 2p's color theme:

all very elsie heavy but i swear i did more of the other kids (these were all done at the crop i went ot a few weks ago) but i used them for other projects :)

and my good friend brooke gave me a boatload of christmas goodies and started me on the december daily journal per ali's blog :) so excited to do this brooke, thank you! :)

here are my first few pages:

here's hoping for a full month of christmas spirit. hoping not to get all stressed out on details. :)