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For those who have served and continue to serve our Country.... THANK YOU!!     

Today we celebrate you and give thanks to God for you!

Happy Mother's Day to you beautiful Moms out there! I hope you all enjoy the blessings in this day. Not the things you might receive, but the blessings God has given you in your kids and spouses and in your awesome role as Mothers. I got this poem from a friend of mine, through email and wanted to post it on here for you all. It was sad to me, as I read it, realizing that not everyone will read this and think of their mom. But just remember, you can be this mom to your little ones and give them this blessing through you. Have a great day!

A MOTHER'S LOVE

A Mother's love is something
that no on can explain,
It is made of deep devotion
and of sacrifice and pain,
It is endless and unselfish
and enduring come what may
For nothing can destroy it
or take that love away . . .
It is patient and forgiving
when all others are forsaking,
And it never fails or falters
even though the heart is breaking . . .
It believes beyond believing
when the world around condemns,
And it glows with all the beauty
of the rarest, brightest gems . . .
It is far beyond defining,
it defies all explanation,
And it still remains a secret
like the mysteries of creation . . .
A many splendoured miracle
man cannot understand
And another wondrous evidence
of God's tender guiding hand.

~Helen Steiner Rice~

We wait and prepare and get all excited and then in just a few short hours.... its over.

We had the best Christmas yet (since getting married) and just really enjoyed spending it with our kids one year older and them being more knowledgeable of what was going on. Its way more fun watching our kids experience Christmas, than experiencing it ourselves. We loved every moment of it! I must brag a bit and say I am extremely proud of our kids. They've had a very busy, filled weekend and have done really well! So, enjoy the post. Its probably way too much information for some of you (so don't feel pressured to read) but some of you blog lovers out there enjoy details, so this one's for you.

Saturday morning began Jason's long break from work (yeah!) and we kicked it off by having our good friends the Kempers over for breakfast. I made my Mom's famous Make Ahead Breakfast, we had fun talking, the kids opened gifts from each other and I got to hold their adorable baby Austin. :)

Saturday night we had our friends from church over, the Bartok family. We met the Bartoks back in May and finally had them over to our house! I know, its about time. To say we had a blast is an understatement. The evening was so much fun and Ethan had a blast playing with Jozeph and Nicholas; wrestling, playing with the train table, racing cars, all the boy stuff. Our fun didn't end until around 10pm and even then it didn't feel long enough. Needless to say, we're going to be sure and do that again. :)

Sunday morning -- Ethan sang for the first time with the Children's choir at church! He sang in the first song called "Come on Ring Those Bells!" He did a very good job, despite having massive stage freight before going up there and ended up telling me "That was fun and next time I will sing and not have my tummy hurt." Jason's coworker came all the way from S.F and after church we went out to lunch with him and enjoyed spending time with him. Than you for coming, Scott!!

Jason and I headed into Livermore to Jason's parents house to visit with a long time friend of ours that was in town for the weekend. We had a nice time seeing a lot of old friends and family.

Monday (Christmas Eve) -- lots of Christmas day prep took place in the earlier part of the day, Jason and Ethan built a gingerbread house and we opened gifts from each other. We had so much fun watching the kids open their presents and seeing surprise and delight on their faces. This is one of my favorite days of the year because its pure family fun and we get to watch our kids enjoy Christmas with just Mommy and Daddy.

Christmas Day started off eating our yummy Make Ahead Breakfast, opening stockings and then heading over to my parent's house. We had yummy chappino soup, followed by a delicious Christmas feast, opened presents and the kids all enjoyed playing with each other. Its rare for all 8 cousins to be together at the same time and so its very special during times like these. We arrived home in time to welcome Jason's family and extended family over for Christmas dinner and gifts. We had such a nice evening with everyone and just really loved being with all the family. The kids received so many wonderful gifts and loved being with Grandparents, Great Grandparents, Uncles and Aunts.

The day could not end without some Wii fun. :) We pulled Jason's Uncle Larry and Cousin Scott (even Aunt Christine joined in!) for some games of bowling. When you see those Wii commercials where whole families are joining together playing and you think *Yeah, right... like that really happens* be assured, it does. :)

Jason doesn't return back to work until January 3rd, so our fun will continue on into the week! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a very Happy New Year!

  Merry Christmas to all our website friends and family!!

See you on the flip side. J&S

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope you all did as well. The food was delicious, but spending the time with family was even better. The kids were a big hit with Jason's family (and some extended family we haven't seen since before our wedding!). They get the royal treatment when we're with J's side of the family because they're the only kids. On my side, they're grandkids #6&8   Jason's cousin Ross and his wife Alyssa are due with their first baby in January and we're all super excited about his/her birth. It will be nice to have the family grow by one more and help make the holidays more lively.

Jason has redone the website with a new Christmas theme. If you're not seeing it, be sure to hit your refresh button. Our Thanksgiving pics aren't too exciting, but they're there. Ethan took some funny ones of Alyssa and me. He was trying so hard to aim high enough, but kept holding the camera too low. So, I helped him out a bit.

Hope you all have a great rest of the weekend! We're sure enjoying having Daddy home for these 4 days.  

Happy Thanksgiving, to all our website friends!

Have a wonderful day with your families and enjoy the time off work.

Our house is very close to Freedom High School (about 2 blocks away) and tonight, they put on a fireworks show that was amazing!! I was in the car with Ethan when we heard this loud BOOM! one after another after another. I finally realized what it was and then realized where it was coming from... right down the street from our house! SO, I quickly drove home and we went in the backyard to catch the last 5 minutes of what was a pretty long show. It was spectacular. Especially watching it from our back door! Jase took a couple pictures and I'll post them here for you to see. This was E's first time seeing live fireworks. He had mixed emotions... "Wow... its pretty... are they gonna get us, Mommy?" "Nope, they just go in the sky." "Oh! Those are pretty! I don't fink they're gonna get us though. Is it scary, Mommy?" and so on. 

Kind of fun... its like 4th of July WEEK here in Oakley/Brentwood. 

Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely moms out there! I hope the day is filled with blessings and good memories. I know that my Mom knows I'm thankful for her, but its nice to have one day out of the year to tell her how much she means to me.

Now that I'm a Mom, I have been able (for the first time in my life) truly be thankful to my Mom for her love, sacrifice, hard work and dedication to us 5 kids. I view myself as a well rounded, well taught adult and I know I owe most of that to my Mom. I don't think I appreciated her as much as I should have until the day I gave birth to Ethan. I remember holding him in my arms, for the first time and thinking to myself... "this is what being a Mom feels like. The love and admiration I have for this tiny baby is more than I ever thought I could have for another person." (I remember that thought because I wrote it down in E's baby book!) I felt such an immense feelings of wanting to protect him from everything, excited to teach him all about life and watch him grow... the feelings were overwhelming and have only gotten more so, over the years.

When Rachel was born, I had a totally different set of emotions. I was holding my daughter... a girl... my girl. It was very different. I felt like we had this bond from day one. Dreams were flooding into my head of what it would be like to have a daughter; someone to have long girl chats with, teaching her how to cook and do house work with me, giving her the best example I could to be a good wife and Mom someday. It was then that I realized just how important a Mom's role is.

For our girls, we want them to see a good and godly example of what it is to fear the Lord with gladness and serve her family with love and gladness. With our boys, we want to give them a good example of what a godly wife is, so they know what to look for in their future wife and to teach them how to treat a woman with love and respect. Its a huge job, no matter how you slice it.

I'm so thankful to God for my role as wife and Mom and I'm thankful we have one day out of the year where we can stop and say "thank-you" to our Moms. For some of you, your Moms are no longer here for you to thank and so you give thanks to God for them and remember your Moms today.

For all of you... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, TO YOU!

We're coming up on Thanksgiving and I was thinking about fun traditions we've had, growing up and some we've started in our family, since getting married. I thought it would be fun to hear from all of you, as to what some of your favorite Thanksgiving traditions are - it doesn't have to be anything spectacular, just something you enjoy doing on that day.

I'll share mine... ever since Jason and I got married (this will be our 3rd Thanksgiving together) we have a tradition of watching the Thanksgiving Day parade and then some football. We are usually cleaning around the house and enjoying the morning that way. Its fun and it gets us in the Christmas mood as well. 

If you have time, please share one of your favorites! -Stef