Happy 12 years and Happy Birthday James!

James and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary by going to San Francisco!  We spent 3 days there enjoying the sights and food!  

12 years ago!

Breakfast on day 1!

Checking out the sights of the city!

Day 2 China Town, Trans America building and lots of shopping!

Shopping in China Town!  On his birthday all he wanted to do was go into the real part of China town and shop so we did!  Can you believe that guy is 36?  Yeah he still looks 26!

Amazing Chinese food!

We saw two movies at night while we were there!  Les Mis and Lincoln both amazing movies!

Dinner at Scoma's for the 2 day!  We had the lobster ravioli in a saffron sauce.  There are almost no words it was that good!!!

The last day we walked along the wharf, went shopping and rode the BART!  It was such a wonderful trip and we are already talking about when we can go again!

Christmas Day!

The kids woke up early showered and got ready for the day (I know I am cruel and make them do that first!)  Then out to see what Santa brought!  Later we had soup for dinner mmmmmm crab bisque and hung out played the game Awkward Family photo's (which is really fun BTW!)

James taking Ruby to see her gifts!  What she wanted (according to the kids)

1.  A baby kitchen

2.  Baby princess doll

3.  A winter coat!

Violet with her gifts

What she wanted:

1.  Minnies Bow-tique (with cart and cash register)

2.  Rapunzel dress-up

3.  Dr McStuffins kit, bouncy cow, Lalaloopsy!

Yeah she wanted waaaay more than 3 things!

Preston with his gifts (it nearly killed him to take that picture!)

What he wanted:

1.  Angry Birds kinect

2.  Remote control car

3.  iplay train set

ANYTHING ANGRY BIRDS!

Dorothy thrilled with her toys!

She asked for:

1.  A bathroom bag (a makeup bag?!  I have no idea why!)

2.  Color Splashers jewlery kit

3.  iHome alarm clock/docking station

I got the kids each a chair from Pottery Barn Kids and they LOVE them!  They are always hauling them from one room to another, and it also helped me get rid of the bean bags!

Ruby and I on Christmas night!  Santa did not disappoint this year for sure!  James got some tools, movies, a remote control helicopter and clothes.  I got Cocoa's vet bill paid, clothes, two new coats, workout clothes (yay!) and a gift card to Anthro to buy some more clothes!  I know but I was really dying for some new stuff since having the baby!

Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve is a holiday with lots of tradition.  We started the morning off by going out to breakfast!  Then home to rest up make food for dinner, and then off to our traditional family dinner!  Then home to open up their present from Papa and Grandma of jammies!  Then off to bed!  Finally Santa sets up and then hits the hay too!

Breakfast at Ihop!

Christmas Eve playing parlor games!

Christmas jammies!

Santa is done and ready for tomorrow!

Mickelsen family Christmas party!

We had our annual family Christmas party on the 23rd we had dinner with all of our special appetizers and Christmas trifle.  Then we had our family Nativity and testimony meeting.  We finish up the night with games and gifts!!  It is such a special time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas!

The cast of the Nativity!

Our best gift this year!

Our sweet little Ruby was the best thing to come out of 2012 without question!

Preston cleans toilets?

Preston had his Kindergarten Christmas program, it was so cute!  They each took a turn telling why they were on Santa's nice list.  Preston stands up and says "I'm on Santa's nice list because I clean the toilets!"  Laughter erupted and I was puzzled... wait he cleans toilets?!  He is such a little comedian and was the hit of the program!

Christmas church outfits!

I found some cute leopard shoes in Ruby's size and then based the kids Christmas outfits around them!  The girls looked so cute in gold dresses, leopard shoes with red accents.  Preston is so handsome in his Christmas church outfit!

Look at those cute kids!

Cute little leopards on cute little feet!!!

Piano recital!

Dorothy started taking piano lessons again this year (after a year off because with violin she refused to read notes and it was becoming a HUGE struggle!)  She has really taken off with the piano and loves to play!  She played 'Jolly old St Nicholas' and 'We Three Kings'!  She is such a gifted musician!

My little violinists!

Dorothy, Preston and Violet all take violin lessons.  They love it most times (except maybe every morning during practice time)!  But I really want them to learn to play so I stick with it (because honestly learning violin requires ALOT of work on my part)!  They had a Christmas recital at the Salem civic center where they played in an orchestra it was really neat and such a reward for all the hard work!

Too Purpley!!!

Our sweet little Violet has a definite opinion when it comes to what she wants to wear!  Every morning we go through her drawers and she tells me 'no, no, no, no' I finally threaten her and she will eventually pick one outfit out of the 3 choices I give her.  One morning we could not find a single outfit she wanted to wear!  After a small battle (which I won) she put on this one, as you can see she was TICKED off!  When I worked the book fair at the kids school I came across a book that was written about Violet!  We now lovingly call her 'Too Purpley!'  

Mad that I made her wear this outfit!

The girl even looks like Violet!

This was her about 20 minutes later!  

She LOVES this book and has every page memorized! 

Cocoa's $1,000 drama!

Our *brilliant* neighbors decided to sprinkle DeCon all over their yard (to get rid of mice) and poor little Cocoa went over there and got into it and ate some!  She was acting up and I had no idea what was wrong (I prayed really hard the night before taking her in I would know what to do by morning) and the next morning she literally could not even walk!  I rushed her to the vet and was there when they opened!  We found out she was bleeding to death internally and had to check her into the vet hospital!  She stayed 2 days and had a blood transfusion and then came home with lots of meds and Dr's orders!  We feel so blessed our little puppy is ok!  If only our *smart* neighbors would clean up the mess from the DeCon (which by the way is illegal to dump DeCon out of the box!)

*No the neighbors did not pay the bill, they are now denying they even dumped the DeCon???!!!

December dance recital!

Dorothy and Violet were in Lifehouse's Christmas production, it was a darling show!  Dorothy was asked to be in a special number (only 7 girls were in it) and LOVED getting some extra stage time!

Pretty little dancers!

Cute cousins!!!

After her first recital!  She LOVED being on the big stage (she prayed she could dance on it for weeks before the actual show)!  

Fan club!  Look how happy Preston looks to be at another one of the girls stupid shows!

So proud of my talented little dancers!!

Little Ruby at 5 months!!!

At 5 months old Ruby's most common nicknames are; Peanut, Rubers, Rubis and Roo-Roo!  The kids are still enamored with her and so are her mom and dad!  She still smiles at everyone and is such a friendly little girl!

She tried sleeping in her crib (unsuccessful)!

Has brought so much LIGHT to our lives!

Loves tummy time and still sucks thumb!

Loves to play with toys especially while laying on a blanket on the floor!  One of my very favorite stages!

Learned to sit up all by herself at 5 1/2 months!!!  I wish you could stay little forever sweet little peanut!

Christmas Jam-Jams!!

You know me and holiday jammies!  Love it and love how cute they look in them!

So cute with Ruby sucking thumb!